Scientists Derive First Bottom-Up Determination of Air-Sea Momentum Transfer Under a Major Hurricane

The eye of Hurricane Ivan passed directly over an array of 14 ocean moorings containing acoustic Doppler current profilers and wave/tide gauges on the outer continental shelf and upper slope in the northeastern Gulf of Mexico. Black dots indicate the mooring locations, spaced about 10 to 20 km apart. Here, the wind stress field (color background) and wind direction arrows are shown as Hurricane Ivan passed over the array. Wind stress ranged from zero in the eye (dark blue circle) to about 10 Pascal in the red-shaded region northeast of the eye. All moorings survived the direct hit of the storm. Wind fields were provided by the National Oceanic & Atmospheric Administration's Hurricane Research Division, Atlantic Oceanographic and Meteorological Laboratory. Source: NRL