The Hatteras Front: August 2004 velocity and density structure

The Hatteras Front is a persistent mesoscale cross-shelf oriented front off Cape Hatteras, North Carolina. It is the boundary between relatively cool, fresh Mid-Atlantic Bight shelf waters and warmer, saltier shelf waters of the South Atlantic Bight, which both converge along-shelf upon Cape Hatteras year round. The Frontal Interaction Near Cape Hatteras (FINCH) project was conducted in 2004-2005 to intensively sample the Hatteras Front with shipboard ADCP and undulating towed CTD. This paper documents velocity and density structures associated with the cross-shelf oriented zone of Hatteras Front during the August 2004 field season. Property gradients across the Hatteras Front are large, with temperature (T) and salinity (S) differences of ∼4-6°C, 2-5 psu, respectively over distances of 1-2 km. The T and S are not completely compensating, and a strong density (ρ) gradient also exists, with Δρ of ∼2 kg/m³ across a gentler 10 km wide front. The density gradient results in a steric sea-level height gradient of ∼1-2 cm across the Front, which is in approximate geostrophic balance with a surface intensified jet, directed shoreward along the cross-shelf oriented Front. The velocity is sheared with depth at 3.0 × 10^-2 to 5.0 × 10^-2 s^-1 in the upper 5 m of the jet; a rate consistent with the density gradient according to the thermal wind relationship. Shoreward transport of ∼4.8 × 10⁴ m³/s results from the surface intensified jet. The structure of the velocity field associated with the Hatteras Front resembles that of a slope-controlled buoyant plume, as described by Lentz and Helfrich (2002). Velocity and density structures are similar during both advancing (southwestward) and retreating (northeastward) motion of the Front.