Mapping Gulf Stream warm core rings from shipboard ADCP transects of the Oleander Project

Abstract

The flow patterns of the Gulf Stream warm core rings and surrounding shelf break and slope water are constructed from shipboard acoustic Doppler current profiler (ADCP) transects of the Oleander Project. For each warm ring, consecutive ADCP transects are colocated to a common ring center and are mapped into a stream function. Methods to locate ring centers from the ADCP transect and advanced very high resolution radiometer image are developed and tested. Two warm rings in 1999, which have relatively complete data coverage, are examined to study the ring‐induced warm and cold streamers. For cold streamers, the estimated volume flux, based on more than 10 independent ADCP transects, is at least 1 × 106 m3 s−1. This result agrees well with the previous estimate in the Warm Core Ring Experiment. For warm streamers, the result is new. On the basis of a large number of ADCP transects, the estimated volume flux is about 2.5 × 106 m3 s−1. By pulling large transports associated with the cold/warm streamers, the warm rings likely play a fundamental role in the water exchange in the Slope Sea.