Variations in the Frontal Structure of the Southern Grand Banks.

• Main Author: La Violette,Paul E
• Other Authors: NAVAL OCEAN RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT ACTIVITY NSTL STATION MS
• Format: Text
• Language: English
• Published: 1981
• Subjects: Physical and Dynamic Oceanography; *OCEAN CURRENTS; TEMPERATURE; EXTRUSION; VARIATIONS; SHALLOW WATER; CIRCULATION; NORTH ATLANTIC OCEAN; GRADIENTS; OCEAN RIDGES; SEAMOUNTS; *Oceanic fronts; Grand Banks; Newfoundland; North Atlantic
• Online Access: http://www.dtic.mil/docs/citations/ADA098909; http://oai.dtic.mil/oai/oai?&verb=getRecord&metadataPrefix=html&identifier=ADA098909

An examination of aircraft and ship data taken as part of the Grand Banks Experiment during 1978 and 1979 and satellite data collected for the period January 1975 through October 1979, shows that the complex changing patterns of thermal gradients in the waters off the southeastern Grand Banks are different phases of large, cold-water extrusions moving away from the Labrador Front. These cold extrusions, well-delineated by their strong surface temperature gradients in the spaceborne and airborne thermal radiometry data, are found to extend as deep as 1500 meters in the shipborne salinity and temperature data. Four of the frontal extrusions are studied in detail. Three of these extrusions are found to be always in some phase of extension, with the actual speed of extension varying considerably. Moreover, the three features are found to consistently overlay specific bathymetric rises: the Newfoundland Ridge, the Newfoundland Seamounts and the Flemish Cap. The fourth cold-water extrusion, which extended south along 49 deg 30 min W in some of the data, did not appear to be topographically influenced. (Author)