Transient Deep Currents in the Santa Barbara Channel- Santa Maria Basin

Transient Deep Currents observed in the Santa Barbara Channel (SBC) and the Santa Maria Basin (SMB) during the Minerals Management Service funded Santa Barbara Channel - Santa Maria Basin circulation study are surprisingly well correlated with local winds. Thus the correlation between the wind stress at ndbc54 in the western SBC and the east-west velocity component at ndbc62 in the SMB INCREASES with depth, at first rapidly from 24 m to about 40 m and then more gently but monotonically - and surprisingly - to the deepest bin (328 m). A qualitatively similar increase of current-windstress correlation is found at ndbc54. The very different vertical structure of the wind-flow and flow-flow correlations and the of the velocity field itself is examined separately in subtidal, diurnal, and semidiurnal tidal frequency bands, and related to previously proposed wave propagation models. These energetically important flow features are not predicted by existing models of the circulation; the point of this paper is that a Coastal Observing System must include synoptic observations at depth in order to capture them.