I still think we can protect the Gulf Coast from hurricanes by preventing the Loop Current (LC) from intruding into the Gulf of Mexico (GoM) and accumulating a big, deep pool of warm water that might energize a hurricane that passes through it. Such an event didn't happen this year. We were lucky. I still think that we can prevent the LC intrusion by converting ocean current power into electric power with floating turbines in the Yucatan Channel, Florida Straits, and the Florida Current Channel formed by the Florida Coast and the Bahama Banks. I used to think that there was a steady decrease in elevation along the length of the LC. Instead, it follows a path more like a roller coaster. I used to think that the length of the LC was proportional to the entrance mean sea level (MSL) minus the outlet MSL. Instead, the difference in MSL is about the same, whether there is a very long LC length, or a short path from the Yucatan Channel directly into the Florida Straits. So what else is wrong?
I was using Grand Cayman Island tide gage readings for inlet MSL. This location is too far upstream from the actual inlet at Yucatan Channel. Now I'm using MSL at Cabo San Antonio, Cuba, the eastern shore of the Yucatan Channel. But still no real relationship exists between sea level drive and LC length. With the old and new data I can see upticks in outlet MSL or drops in inlet MSL causing pinch-offs of the LC, followed by ring separations. But these only trigger instabilities. There is no evidence that a long Loop path is caused by large hydraulic drive.
I think that the explanation may be that the GoM is always full of counter-clockwise (CCW) vortices and clockwise (CW) rings along with a segment of LC that is connected between Yucatan Channel and the Straits. The sea surface is elevated inside the CW rings and depressed inside the CCW vortices. They are all coupled together, and they all dissipate power. I once followed the evolution of a detached CW ring. I wanted to get its decay time in order to calculate the friction coefficient. It intensified instead of decaying, showing that CCW vortices were driving it. This may mean that the power to drive the turbines is available all the time and might supply the base load of a mainland grid, not just desalination applications. The next task is to estimate how much power is available.
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