Characteristics and applications of circulation features north of Cuba, southeastern Gulf of Mexico and Straits of Florida, 2011-2016

This dataset contains circulation characteristics that are typical of circulation north of Cuba, especially anticyclonic eddies (CubANs), a major mesoscale feature along northwestern Cuba. The characteristics have been derived from a) observations, as described in “In situ measurements of circulation features influencing cross-shelf transport around Northwest Cuba”(Le Hénaff et al. 2020); and b) data-validated model outputs, described in: “Gulf Stream evolution through the Straits of Florida: the role of eddies and upwelling near Cuba” (Androulidakis et al., Ocean Sciences, In Revision) and "Pathways of Oil Spills from Potential Cuban Offshore Exploration: Influence of Ocean Circulation" (Androulidakis et al, 2020).

The data are organized in three directories: Paper_InSitu contains observations presented in Le Henaff et al 2020; Paper_Pathways contains data from Androulidakis et al (2020, Pathways); and Paper_GulfStream contains oil trajectories from Androulidakis et al (2020, Gulf Stream Evolution). The latter application consists of oil pathways from potential spills in Cuban waters; these have been simulated by OpenOil (part of the the OpenDrift trajectory modeling framework; Dagestad et al., 2018). Simulations were carried out by launching 100 particles daily at the sea surface at 11 potential oil spill sites on the first day of each year from 2011 to 2016. Related datasets R6.x818.000:0011 (doi: 10.7266/6EMHT4E1) and R6.x818.000:0010 (doi: 10.7266/88M3XXQW) also contain data relating to the Gulf Stream evolution paper.