Monitoring the greater San Pedro Bay region using autonomous underwater gliders during fall of 2006

Abstract

Glider surveys of the greater San Pedro Bay region in the Southern California Bight during the fall of 2006 demonstrated the utility of autonomous underwater gliders in a coastal region with complex flow and significant anthropogenic inputs. Three Spray gliders repeatedly surveyed between Santa Catalina Island and the coast of Southern California collecting profiles of temperature, salinity, and chlorophyll fluorescence and estimates of vertically averaged currents. These observations provided context for shelf transport studies during the Huntington Beach 2006 experiment and showed the transition from summer to winter conditions. Vertically averaged currents were predominantly poleward following topography with horizontal scales of approximately 20 km. The gliders surveyed a small cyclonic eddy near Santa Catalina Island and provided a unique view of the structure of the eddy. Nitrate concentration within the euphotic zone was estimated to be 19% greater within the eddy and led to significantly elevated chlorophyll concentrations at the subsurface maximum. Glider observations of salinity reliably detected the distinctly fresh signature of the effluent plume from an ocean outfall near Huntington Beach, California. The salinity anomaly caused by the plume was used to track the spread of the plume as it was advected poleward and away from the coast while remaining subsurface.