Surface circulation in the southern Gulf of Mexico
Paula Pérez-Brunius, Paula García-Carrillo
Depto. Oceanografía física, CICESE
(Abstract received 08/13/2009 for session A)
ABSTRACT
We present preliminary results from a surface drifter program that started in September 2007 as part of a large modeling and observational effort funded by the mexican oil industry to study the physical oceanography of the deep waters of the southern Gulf of Mexico (Bay of Campeche). Pseudo-Eulerian statistics show the presence of a mean cyclonic gyre, with a western boundary current particularly strong in the Fall-Winter, supporting the hypothesis of a wind-driven gyre as suggested in the literature from the few oceanographic data previously available for the region. The cyclonic gyre appears to be topographically confined to the western Bay of Campeche, delimited by a broadening of the isobaths that fan out towards the East. Although the Bay of Campeche is a relatively quiet area compared to the northern Gulf of Mexico (the latter being dominated by energetic Loop Current Eddies which rarely penetrate into the Bay), strong northward flowing jets were occasionally observed within the central Bay of Campeche. Most of these occurrences seem to result from the interaction of the cyclonic gyre with small anticyclones locally generated in the southeastern boundary.
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