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Extreme Water Mass Anomaly Observed in the Hawaii
Ocean Time-series
Roger Lukas
Fernando Santiago-Mandujano
Abstract
Extremely anomalous
water mass properties,
with deviations as high as 35s, were observed in the
thermocline during January 2001 at the Hawaii Ocean
Time-series site north of Oahu. The spatial distribution
of the anomalous waters is consistent with a submesoscale
vortex with radius ~20-30 km, possibly a
remnant of a mesoscale eddy. The most plausible source
location of the anomalous waters is offshore of Mexico
near Baja California. Given the southwestward subtropical
gyre circulation, it is unlikely that these waters
were transported directly westward to Hawaii. Unusual
northward transport of Equatorial Waters along the
coast by the 1997-98 El Niño event, and subsequent
transport southwestward in the core of a midthermocline
eddy is more plausible. El Niño modulation
of eddy transport and diffusion of water mass properties
may substantially impact biological productivity in the
low-nutrient North Pacific subtropical gyre.
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