title: Seasonal and Interannual Variability in Gulf of Maine Hydrodynamics: 2002-2011.
abstract: In situobservations including long-term moored meteorological and oceanographic measurements and multi-year gulf-wide ship survey data are used to quantify interannual variability of surface wind, river runoff, and hydrographic conditions in the Gulf of Maine during summers 2002-2011. The cumulative upwelling index shows that upwelling (downwelling)-favorable wind conditions were most persistent in 2010 (2005) over the 10-year study period. River discharge was highest in 2005; peak runoff occurred in early April in 2010 as opposed to late April to middle May in other years. Moored time series show that coastal water temperature was 0.5-2 °C warmer than average in summer 2010, and about 2 °C colder than average in 2004. Coastal salinity in April 2010 was the lowest in the 10-year study period. Both moored Acoustic Doppler Current Profiler (ADCP) current measurements and dynamic height/geostrophic velocity calculations based on gulf-wide ship survey data show May-June 2010 had one of the weakest alongshore transports in the western Gulf of Maine during the 10-year study period, likely associated with intrusions of warm slope water and fresher-than-usual Scotian Shelf water. Comparisons of coastal currents to the Paralytic Shellfish Poisoning (PSP) closure maps resulting fromA. fundyenseblooms suggest a linkage between alongshore transport and the downstream extent of toxicity.
authors.affiliation: Department of Maine, Earth and Atmospheric Sciences, North Carolina State University.
authors.forename: Yizhen
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Li
authors.affiliation: Department of Maine, Earth and Atmospheric Sciences, North Carolina State University.
authors.forename: Ruoying
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: He
authors.affiliation: Department of Applied Ocean Physics and Engineering, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution.
authors.forename: Dennis J
authors.initials: DJ
authors.lastname: McGillicuddy
keywords: Gulf of Maine; Hydrography; Interannual Variability; River Discharge; Upwelling Index