Fig. 17

Cuddy SCV generation by boundary current separation. California undercurrent eddies (Cuddies) form by separation of the California Undercurrent at the headland south of Monterey Bay, CA. This is a simulation snapshot of normalized vertical vorticity, \(\zeta /f\), at 150 m depth. Anticyclonic (blue) vorticity is generated by the bottom drag along the slope and flows north until it separates near Pt. Sur, CA. Centrifugal instability occurs, wake vortices emerge, and then, these smaller vortices merge into a larger Cuddy, seen here in the middle of the Bay at an intermediate stage of self-organization. Subsequently, Cuddies disperse into the interior Pacific by mesoscale currents (Molemaker et al. 2015)