Circulation at the Entrance to the Gulf of California

智力优点：2013年4月，在R/V Point Sur从南极洲帕尔默站返回加州莫斯兰丁站期间，将对加州湾口的沃茨水域进行为期八天的调查。 将使用从海洋表面延伸到海底的紧密间隔CTD观测以及使用船上安装的声学多普勒海流剖面仪对海流的观测来测量太平洋和加州湾之间的流速和输送。 将在下加利福尼亚南部海岸沿着进行类似的观测，以确定加州湾形成的沃茨到达太平洋后的命运。 这些观测将补充由墨西哥恩塞纳达的下加利福尼亚自治大学（UABC）和加利福尼亚州蒙特雷的海军研究生院联合开展的20年观测计划。 墨西哥湾口的表层沃茨生产力很高，部分原因是墨西哥湾和太平洋沃茨混合，而次表层沃茨含有很少的溶解氧，约为每公斤2-4微摩尔。 后者令人担忧，因为沿着下加利福尼亚流出墨西哥湾的次表层沃茨与加利福尼亚暗流汇合，并沿着沿着美国西海岸向极地流动，这可能导致南加州湾的含氧量下降。 2013年对海湾口水属性的观测将与1991年获得的观测进行比较，以了解水属性是否随时间发生系统性变化。更广泛的影响：这项合作研究将有助于研究生和本科教学计划在UABC和研究生课程在麻省理工学院。 学生将参与船上数据的收集，处理和解释。 该项目还将促进继续与墨西哥海洋学家合作进行海洋研究，这对于了解共同海洋资源的联合管理是必要的。 例子包括当低氧沃茨流入大陆架时出现的“死区”，以及当洪堡鱿鱼向北移动进入加州沃茨时出现的生态扰动。 所有收集的数据将提交给国家海洋数据中心（NODC）存档和分发。

Intellectual merit: An eight-day survey of waters at the mouth of the Gulf of California will be conducted during the return transit of R/V Point Sur from Palmer Station, Antarctica, to Moss Landing, California, in April 2013. Flow rates and transports between the Pacific Ocean and Gulf of California will be measured using closely spaced CTD observations which extend from the ocean surface to the bottom as well as from observations of currents using vessel mounted acoustic Doppler current profilers. Similar observations will be carried out along the southern coast of Baja California in order to determine the fate of waters formed in the Gulf of California when they reach the Pacific Ocean. These observations will complement a 20-year program of observations carried out jointly by the Universidad Autonoma de Baja California (UABC) in Ensenada, Mexico, and the Naval Postgraduate School (NPS) in Monterey, CA. Surface waters at the mouth of the Gulf are highly productive, in part due to mixing of Gulf and Pacific waters, while subsurface waters contain very little dissolved oxygen, about 2-4 micro mole per kg. The latter is of concern as subsurface waters which flow out of the Gulf along Baja California join the California Undercurrent and flow poleward along the West Coast of the United States, perhaps contributing to declining oxygen values in the Southern California bight. 2013 observations of water properties at the mouth of the Gulf will be compared to those obtained in 1991 to see if systematic changes of water properties are occurring with time. Broader impacts: This collaborative research will contribute to graduate and undergraduate teaching programs at UABC and graduate programs at NPS. Students will be involved with collection, processing, and interpretation of shipboard data. The project will also foster continued cooperative ocean studies with Mexican oceanographers which are necessary to understand joint management of common ocean resources. Examples include "dead zones" which occur when low oxygen waters flow onto the continental shelf and the ecological perturbations which occur when Humboldt squid move northward into California waters. All the collected data will be submitted to the National Oceanographic Data Center (NODC) for archiving and distribution.