High-resolution observations of subsurface fronts and alongshore bottom temperature variability over the inner shelf

Author Posting. © American Geophysical Union, 2019. This article is posted here by permission of American Geophysical Union for personal use, not for redistribution. The definitive version was published in Journal of Geophysical Research-Oceans 53(3), (2019): 1639-1649, doi:10.1029/2018JC014454.Circulation patterns over the inner continental shelf can be spatially complex and highly variable in time. However, few studies have examined alongshore variability over short scales of kilometers or less. To observe inner‐shelf bottom temperatures with high (5‐m) horizontal resolution, a fiber‐optic distributed temperature sensing system was deployed along a 5‐km‐long portion of the 15‐m isobath within a larger‐scale mooring array south of Martha's Vineyard, MA. Over the span of 4 months, variability at a range of scales was observed along the cable over time periods of less than a day. Notably, rapid cooling events propagated down the cable away from a tidal mixing front, showing that propagating fronts on the inner shelf can be generated locally near shallow bathymetric features in addition to remote offshore locations. Propagation velocities of observed fronts were influenced by background tidal currents in the alongshore component and show a weak correlation with theoretical gravity current speeds in the cross‐shore component. These events provide a source of cold, dense water into the inner shelf. However, differences in the magnitude and frequency of cooling events at sites separated by a few kilometers in the alongshore direction suggest that the characteristics of small‐scale variability can vary dramatically and can result in differential fluxes of water, heat, and other tracers. Thus, under stratified conditions, prolonged subsurface observations with high spatial and temporal resolution are needed to characterize the implications of three‐dimensional circulation patterns on exchange, especially in regions where the coastline and isobaths are not straight.Deployment of the DTS system was made possible by the Center for Transformative Environmental Monitoring Programs (CTEMPS), with input, assistance, and software provided by John Selker, Scott Tyler, Paul Wetzel, Mark Hausner, and Scott Kobs. The authors thank Hugh Popenoe, Jared Schwartz, and Brian Guest for their technical expertise and effort with setup, deployment, and recovery of the DTS system, as well as the captains and crew of the R/V Discovery and R/V Tioga. Janet Fredericks assisted with integrating the DTS measurements with Martha's Vineyard Coastal Observatory infrastructure. Steve Lentz was instrumental in the design and deployment of the ISLE mooring array. Craig Marquette provided invaluable expertise and effort in the deployment of the ISLE mooring array. The authors thank Greg Gerbi for providing velocity data at site H and Malcolm Scully for providing velocity and near‐bottom temperature data at site E. Kenneth Brink and two anonymous reviewers provided valuable comments on the manuscript. DTS measurements were supported by the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution. The ISLE project is supported by NSF (OCE‐83264600). T. Connolly acknowledges support from NSF (OCE‐1433716) and a WHOI postdoctoral scholarship funded by the U.S. Geological Survey and the WHOI Coastal Ocean Institute. DTS data are available on Zenodo (Connolly & Kirincich, 2018, https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.1136113). ISLE mooring data are available on the WHOI Open Access Data Server (Kirincich & Lentz, 2017b, https://doi.org/10.1575/1912/8740).2019-06-2