@article{c0d4a4ea98d24e6496b5c2a2fe3786bc,
title = "Persistent Lagrangian transport patterns in the northwestern Gulf of Mexico",
abstract = "Persistent Lagrangian transport patterns at the ocean surface are revealed from climatological Lagrangian coherent structures (cLCSs) computed from daily climatological surface current velocities in the northwestern Gulf of Mexico (NWGoM). The climatological currents are computed from daily velocities produced by an 18-yr-long free-running submesoscale-permitting Nucleus for European Modelling of the Ocean (NEMO) simulation of the Gulf of Mexico. Despite the intense submesoscale variability produced by the model along the shelf break, which is found to be consistent with observations and previous studies, a persistent mesoscale attracting barrier between the NWGoM shelf and the deep ocean is effectively identified by a hook-like pattern associated with persistent strongly attracting cLCSs. Simulated tracer and satellitetracked drifters originating over the shelf tend to be trapped there by the hook-like pattern as they spread cyclonically. Tracers and drifters originating beyond the shelf tend to be initially attracted to the hook-like pattern as they spread anticyclonically and eventually over the deep ocean. The findings have important implications for the mitigation of contaminant accidents such as oil spills.",
keywords = "Continental shelf/slope, Lagrangian circulation/transport, Mesoscale processes, Nonlinear dynamics, Ocean, Ocean circulation",
author = "Gough, {Matt K.} and Beron-Vera, {Francisco J.} and Olascoaga, {Mar{\'i}a J.} and Julio Sheinbaum and Julien Jouanno and Rodrigo Duran",
note = "Funding Information: The thoughtful suggestions and comments from two anonymous reviewers are greatly appreciated. We thank Favio Medrano from the Departamento de Computaci{\'o}n at CICESE for his help in speeding up the LCS computations.Wewould also like to thankAlejandro Dom{\'i}nguez (CICESE) for his input and conversations. TheGLAD(doi:10.7266/N7VD6WC8) and LASER (doi:10.7266/N7W0940J) drifter trajectory datasets are publicly available through the Gulf of Mexico Research Initiative Information and Data Cooperative (GRIIDC) at https://data.gulfresearchinitiative.org. The NOAA/GDPdataset is available at http://www.aoml.noaa. gov/phod/dac. The drifter trajectory data from Horizon Marine Inc.'s EddyWatch program have been obtained as a part of a data exchange agreement between Horizon Marine Inc. and CICESE-Pemex. The CICESE-Pemex ''Caracterizaci{\'o}n Metoce{\'a}nica del Golfo de M{\'e}xico'' project was funded by PEMEX contracts SAP-428217896, 428218855, and 428229851. The quality control and postprocessing of the CICESE-Pemex data were carried out by Paula Garcia and Argelia Ronquillo. Support for this work was provided by Consejo Nacional de Ciencia y Tecnolog{\'i}a (CONACyT)-Secretar{\'i}a de Energ{\'i}a (SENER) Grant 201441 (MKG, FJBV, MJO, JS, and JJ) as part of the Consorcio de Investigaci{\'o}n del Golfo de M{\'e}xico (CIGoM) and the Gulf of Mexico Research Initiative (FJBV and MJO) as part of the Consortium for Advanced Research of Transport of Hydrocarbons in the Environment (CARTHE). Work by RD was in support of the National Energy Technology Laboratory's ongoing research under the Offshore Field Work Proposal DOE NETL FY14-17 under the RES contract DE-FE0004000.",
year = "2019",
doi = "10.1175/JPO-D-17-0207.1",
language = "English (US)",
volume = "49",
pages = "353--367",
journal = "Journal of Physical Oceanography",
issn = "0022-3670",
publisher = "American Meteorological Society",
number = "2",
}