Shelf sea tidal currents and mixing fronts determined  from ocean glider observations

Sheehan, Peter M. F.; Berx, Barbara; Gallego, Alejandro; Hall, Rob A.; Heywood, Karen J.; Hughes, Sarah L.; Queste, Bastien Y.

doi:https://doi.org/10.5194/os-14-225-2018

Articles | Volume 14, issue 2

https://doi.org/10.5194/os-14-225-2018

© Author(s) 2018. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

https://doi.org/10.5194/os-14-225-2018

© Author(s) 2018. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

Articles | Volume 14, issue 2

Research article

|

15 Mar 2018

Research article |

| 15 Mar 2018

Shelf sea tidal currents and mixing fronts determined from ocean glider observations

Peter M. F. Sheehan, Barbara Berx, Alejandro Gallego, Rob A. Hall, Karen J. Heywood, Sarah L. Hughes, and Bastien Y. Queste

Data sets

NOCS Surface Flux Dataset v2.0. Research Data Archive at the National Center for Atmospheric Research, Computational and Information Systems Laboratory National Oceanography Centre/University of Southampton https://rda.ucar.edu/datasets/ds260.3/

Hydrographic observations of oxygen and related physical variables in the North Sea and western Ross Sea polynya B. Y. Queste http://www.byqueste.com/downloads/QuesteBY_thesis.pdf

Short summary

We calculate tidal velocities using observations of ocean currents collected by an underwater glider. We use these velocities to investigate the location of sharp boundaries between water masses in shallow seas. Narrow currents along these boundaries are important transport pathways around shallow seas for pollutants and organisms. Tides are an important control on boundary location in summer, but seawater salt concentration can also influence boundary location, especially in winter.