Shelf export at Cape Hatteras Observed in high resolution HF-radar surface currents and mooring data.

Dana K Savidge, Skidaway Institute of Oceanography, Savannah, GA, United States, Mike Muglia, University of North Carolina Coastal Studies Insitute, Wanchese, United States, Harvey Seim, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Earth, Marine, and Environmental Sciences, Chapel Hill, NC, United States, Catherine Richardson Edwards, Skidaway Institute of Oceanogr, Savannah, GA, United States, Sara Haines, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Earth, Marine, and Environmental Sciences, Chapel Hill, United States, Nicolas Desimone, Coastal Studies Institute, Wanchese, NC, United States, Benjamin Brian Hefner, University of Georgia, Athens, GA, United States and Gabriel Matthias, University of Rhode Island, R/V Endeavor, Narragansett, United States
Abstract:
The NSF-funded PEACH (Processes driving Exchange At Cape Hatteras) project recently concluded 18 months of field sampling (ship surveys, moorings, shore-based radars and autonomous gliders) designed to inform analysis and modeling assessment of shelf-edge exchange events and controlling dynamics. Large volumes of shelf water are exported to the open ocean at Cape Hatteras, due to robust mean shelf convergence and energetic episodic forcing of shelf circulation. The Hatteras Front, the boundary between the convergent northern and southern shelf waters at Hatteras, translates repeatedly through the region in fall and winter under strong northeasterly wind forcing and relaxation. Some export immediately adjacent to Diamond Shoals (ESE of Cape Hatteras) can be associated with this alongshelf propagation of the Front. Other potential mechanisms are also suggested by HF-radar surface current fields at high resolution (2km horizontally, 20 minute temporally) during PEACH. Together with existing lower resolution radar data, these additional high resolution radar data offer a new window into details of shelf circulation in this setting. This report will combine radar and in-situ ocean and atmospheric data to illuminate relationships between forcing and circulation response during export events.
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