{"id":175681,"date":"2022-01-12T10:36:33","date_gmt":"2022-01-12T15:36:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/gso\/?p=175681"},"modified":"2022-06-30T10:56:36","modified_gmt":"2022-06-30T14:56:36","slug":"exploring-the-depths-of-the-gulf-of-mexico-loop-current","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/gso\/publications\/aboard-gso\/exploring-the-depths-of-the-gulf-of-mexico-loop-current\/","title":{"rendered":"Exploring the Depths of the Gulf of Mexico Loop Current"},"content":{"rendered":"

Circulation Dynamics<\/h1>

Exploring the Depths of the Gulf of Mexico Loop Current<\/p><\/div><\/div>

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\u201cThe Loop Current influences a wide variety of ocean processes that have implications for hurri\u00adcane intensity, harmful algal blooms, oil and gas operations, fishing, tourism and other human and natural activities.\u201d<\/blockquote><\/div><\/section><\/p>\n

By Todd McLeish<\/h4>\n

In May of 2021, a team of five GSO scientists spent two weeks retrieving 24 sensors from the seafloor in the deepest part of the Gulf of Mexico as part of a long-term, collaborative effort to better understand the Gulf\u2019s Loop Current system. The instruments had been collecting data every hour since being deployed two years earlier.<\/p>\n

According to Professor Kathleen Donohue, who led the project with Professor D. Randolph Watts, the Loop Current is the dominant ocean circulation feature in the Gulf. It enters the region from the Caribbean through the Yucatan Channel and travels in a loop around the Gulf, exiting between Cuba and Florida, where it becomes the Florida Current and eventually the Gulf Stream.<\/p>\n

\u201cOccasionally a loop will close off and generate a really large eddy or ring, and that large ring will propagate into the western Gulf,\u201d said Donohue. \u201cThat eddy-shedding event energizes the whole Gulf.\u201d<\/p>\n

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The science team gathers aboard R\/V Pelican<\/em> to examine incoming data.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The Loop Current influences a wide variety of ocean processes that have implications for hurricane intensity, harmful algal blooms, oil and gas operations, fishing, tourism and other human and natural activities. Despite its importance, little is known about the current\u2019s dynamics below the ocean surface.<\/p>\n

Information Please<\/h3>\n

\u201cWe know a lot about what happens in upper ocean currents, but we don\u2019t know what\u2019s happening in the deep,\u201d Donohue said. \u201cWe\u2019re hoping to collect measurements from the full water column and show that they have value for understanding and predicting the Loop Current.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe know, for instance, that when an eddy forms, there\u2019s a transfer of energy between the surface currents and the deep,\u201d she added. \u201cIt\u2019s a way of injecting energy into the deep ocean. We suspect that deep energy radiates out to the boundaries of the Gulf. The boundaries are steep and can get very strong currents along these escarpments. I\u2019d like to better understand that process.\u201d<\/p>\n

The project was funded with a $2 million grant from the Gulf Research Program of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine, funds that were made available as a result of the Deepwater Horizon oil spill.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe were caught a little flat-footed in 2010 when the oil spill happened because we didn\u2019t know enough about the Loop Current to know where the oil would go,\u201d said Donohue. \u201cWe don\u2019t have a lot of predictability in the Loop Current system right now. This project is an effort at predictability, to create a forecasting system that works well.\u201d<\/p>\n

The sensors used to gather data about the Loop Current in the water column are called Current and Pressure Recording Inverted Echo Sounders or CPIES. Developed by Watts and GSO Professor Emeritus H. Thomas Rossby in the 1970s, the instruments measure the pressure and current in the deep ocean while also providing a temperature and salinity profile. All of this information provides the scientists with estimates of the current velocity throughout the water column.<\/p>\n