The response of the shelf to Hurricane Belle, August 1976

On 10 August 1976 Hurricane Belle passed through the New York Bight; the data set included meteorological information from the National Weather Service, water level information from the National Ocean Survey, and current meter and Salinity/Temperature/Depth (STD) information from the Marine Ecosystem Analysis Program. Hurricane Belle can be classified as a fast-moving storm translating over a two-layer density structure. The temporal and spatial responses to the hurricane were determined by spectral and residual techniques. The STD information and the temperature records obtained at the current meter locations indicate that a cooling and mixing of the surface waters was observed at stations to the right of the storm, and that only weak mixing was observed at stations directly in the path of the storm. At current meter locations on deeper areas of the continental shelf (greater than 55 m), the baroclinic response of a generation of internal inertia-gravity waves in the lee of the hurricane can be seen in the two layers. For stations on the shallower area of the she!;* (less than 55 m), a strong barotropic response indicated by the generation of localized quasi-geostrophic barotropic Rossby waves, 18 to 20 hours after the hurricane entered the New York Bight, is observed. The data compared favorably with the results of Chang and Anthes for a hurricane translating at 11 m s"1. The topographic restraint on the velocity field for stations located in the Hudson Canyon is described. 1981 NOS (National Ocean Service) Library Public domain 1936