Carriers of Sargassum and mechanism for coastal inundation in the Caribbean Sea
We identify effective carriers of Sargassum in the Caribbean Sea and describe a mechanism for coastal choking. Revealed from satellite altimetry, the carriers of Sargassum are mesoscale eddies (vortices of 50-km radius or larger) with coherent material (i.e., fluid) boundaries. These are observer-independent—unlike eddy boundaries identified with instantaneously closed streamlines of the altimetric sea-surface height field—and furthermore harbor finite-time attractors for networks of elastically connected finite-size buoyant or “inertial” particles dragged by ocean currents and winds, a mathematical abstraction of Sargassum rafts. The mechanism of coastal inundation, identified using a minimal model of surface-intensified Caribbean Sea eddies, is thermal instability in the presence of bottom topography.
| Main Authors: | , , , , , |
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| Format: | Texto biblioteca |
| Language: | eng |
| Subjects: | Sargassum, Control de algas, Inundación costera, |
| Online Access: | https://doi.org/10.1063/5.0079055 |
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