AXBT (Air-Deployed Expendable Bathythermograph) Measurements off the Northeast Coast of South America, Spring 1985.

摘要

In March and May 1985, 219 air-deployed expendable bathythermograph (AXBT) profiles were taken off the northeast coast of South America in a region of large scale thermohaline steps. Presented in this report are a map of the location of the staircase field during this time, contours of the depths of the 6-22 deg C isotherms, and individual profile plots. The main body of the steps was found to lie on either side of a line from 8 deg N 50 W to 16 deg N 61 W, with weaker and more poorly defined steps occurring outside the main field. The mesoscale flow patterns inferred from the isotherm plots indicated that during this time period the North Equatorial Current entered the region over a broad area north of 10 deg N. Much of the flow proceeded westward toward the lesser Antilles, but the upper several hundred meters of the southern part of the flow (between about 10-14 deg N) turned southward between 50 deg - 54 deg W and flowed back to the east, forming a tight loop. The eddy field on the southern edge of the survey, between 3-10 deg N, 40-50 deg W, appeared to be either poorly developed or shifted to the south and east outside most of the survey range. Keywords: Graphs, Charts.