Meteorological forcing and bottom water movement off the northern New Jersey coast

Abstract

Cold bottom water is found during the summer months in a region extending from the shelf break to the nearshore zone in the area of the New York Bight. This cold bottom water, some of which is in the temperature range of the cold cell (8 °C or less), is observed to move onshore in response to upwelling events initiated by a strong wind stress from the south. Surf temperatures, nearshore temperature sections off Monterey Beach, N.J., wind velocities and offshore temperature sections are combined to document the cold cell's formation during 1974 and to demonstrate that the shoreward boundary of the cold bottom water and possibly cold cell water can move into the surf zone causing rapid decreases in surf temperature. In addition, under upwelling conditions, such onshore movements may have significant biological impacts, such as were observed during the summer of 1976 when anoxic conditions prevailed in much of this region.