Local oceanic response to atmospheric forcing in the Gulf Stream region

The dominance of shifts in the location of the Gulf Stream (GS) in the local heat balance was observed in an hourly 15-month record of unprecedented surface mooring measurements at a site in the western North Atlantic occupied from November 2005 to January 2007. Instrumentation on the buoy provided a high quality record of air-sea exchanges of momentum, heat, and freshwater flux; and oceanographic sensors recorded ocean variability in the upper 640 m. The mooring was at times in the GS and at other times north of the GS. Our intent was to isolate the local oceanic response to the atmosphere from the influence of the GS shifts. A one-dimensional heat budget analysis indicated that the advective contribution from the GS shifts dwarfed the heat contribution by atmospheric forcing and therefore played the dominant role for upper oceanic thermal variability during the whole time record. A GS case study (i.e., when the surface mooring was in the GS), isolated the upper oceanic response to the atmospheric forcing in the GS and supported the critical role of GS shifts in total oceanic heat content. Through both an Empirical Orthogonal Function (EOF) analysis and by referencing temperatures to that observed at 200 m, the impact of GS shifts and atmospheric forcing were decomposed, allowing the local oceanic thermal response to be isolated. This local oceanic response was particularly prominent during the period of sustained heating during summer. A case study of summer conditions revealed a near surface flow consistent with Ekman dynamics within a shallow, warm ocean mixed layer.