@article{8cbb5cca82f3428d8208861cd6ce0e1d,
title = "Lagrangian geography of the deep gulf of mexico",
abstract = "Using trajectories from acoustically tracked (RAFOS) floats in theGulf ofMexico, we construct a geography of its Lagrangian circulation within the 1500-2500-m layer. This is done by building aMarkov-chain representation of the Lagrangian dynamics. The geography is composed of weakly interacting provinces that constrain the connectivity at depth. Themain geography includes two provinces of near-equal areas separated by a roughlymeridional boundary. The residence time is about 4.5 (3.5) years in the western (eastern) province. The exchange between these provinces is effected through a slow cyclonic circulation, which is well constrained in the western basin by preservation of f/H, where f is the Coriolis parameter and H is depth. Secondary provinces of varied shapes covering smaller areas are identified with residence times ranging from about 0.4 to 1.2 years or so. Except for the main provinces, the deep Lagrangian geography does not resemble the surface Lagrangian geography recently inferred from satellite-tracked drifter trajectories. This implies disparate connectivity characteristics with potential implications for pollutant (e.g., oil) dispersal at the surface and at depth. Support for our results is provided by a Markov-chain analysis of satellitetracked profiling (Argo) floats, which, while forming a smaller dataset and having seemingly different waterfollowing characteristics than theRAFOS floats, replicate the main aspects of the Lagrangian geography.Our results find further validation in independent results from a chemical tracer release experiment.",
keywords = "Abyssal circulation, Buoy observations, Pattern detection, Statistical techniques",
author = "P. Miron and Beron-Vera, {F. J.} and Olascoaga, {M. J.} and G. Froyland and P. P{\'e}rez-Brunius and J. Sheinbaum",
note = "Funding Information: Acknowledgments. We acknowledge Amy Bower{\textquoteright}s group at Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution for RAFOS float preparation, data acquisition, and final processing, which made the float trajectory dataset possible. We thank Alexis Lugo-Fernandez for helping us access the acoustically tracked float data, which are currently available from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA)/Atlantic Ocean and Meteorological Laboratory (AOML) subsurface float observations page (http://www.aoml.noaa.gov/ phod/float_traj/index.php). The profiling float data were collected and made freely available through SEA scieNtific Open data Edition (SEANOE) at http:// www.seanoe.org (doi:10.17882/42182) by the International Argo Program and the national programs that contribute to it (http://www.argo.ucsd.edu, http://argo. jcommops.org). The Argo Program is part of the Global Ocean Observing System (http://www.goosocean. org). The chemical tracer data are publicly available through the Gulf of Mexico Research Initiative Information and Data Cooperative (GRIIDC) at https:// data.gulfresearchinitiative.org (doi:10.7266/N79P2ZK2, doi:10.7266/N75X26VQ, and doi:10.7266/N7251G4Q). Support for this work was provided by the Gulf of Mexico Research Initiative (P.M., F.J.B.V., and M.J.O.) as part of CARTHE, the Consejo Nacional de Ciencia y Tecnolog{\'i}a (CONACyT)–Secretar{\'i}a de Energ{\'i}a (SENER) Grant 201441 (F.J.B.V., M.J.O., and P.M.) as part of the Consorcio de Investigaci{\'o}n del Golfo de M{\'e}xico (CIGoM), and the Australian Research Council (ARC) Discovery Project DP150100017 (G.F.). Funding Information: We acknowledge Amy Bower's group at Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution for RAFOS float preparation, data acquisition, and final processing, which made the float trajectory dataset possible. We thank Alexis Lugo-Fernandez for helping us access the acoustically tracked float data, which are currently available from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA)/Atlantic Ocean and Meteorological Laboratory (AOML) subsurface float observations page (http://www.aoml.noaa.gov/ phod/float_traj/index.php). The profiling float data were collected and made freely available through SEA scieNtific Open data Edition (SEANOE) at http:// www.seanoe.org (doi:10.17882/42182) by the International Argo Program and the national programs that contribute to it (http://www.argo.ucsd.edu, http://argo. jcommops.org). The Argo Program is part of the Global Ocean Observing System (http://www.goosocean. org). The chemical tracer data are publicly available through the Gulf of Mexico Research Initiative Information and Data Cooperative (GRIIDC) at https:// data.gulfresearchinitiative.org (doi:10.7266/N79P2ZK2, doi:10.7266/N75X26VQ, and doi:10.7266/N7251G4Q). Support for this work was provided by the Gulf of Mexico Research Initiative (P.M., F.J.B.V., and M.J.O.) as part of CARTHE, the Consejo Nacional de Ciencia y Tecnolog{\'i}a (CONACyT)-Secretar{\'i}a de Energ{\'i}a (SENER) Grant 201441 (F.J.B.V., M.J.O., and P.M.) as part of the Consorcio de Investigaci{\'o}n delGolfo deM{\'e}xico (CIGoM), and the Australian Research Council (ARC) Discovery Project DP150100017 (G.F.). Publisher Copyright: {\textcopyright} 2019 American Meteorological Society.",
year = "2019",
month = jan,
day = "1",
doi = "10.1175/JPO-D-18-0073.1",
language = "English (US)",
volume = "49",
pages = "269--290",
journal = "Journal of Physical Oceanography",
issn = "0022-3670",
publisher = "American Meteorological Society",
number = "1",
}