2.4 Sea Surface Temperature Patterns on the West Florida Shelf Using Growing Hierarchical Self-organizing Maps

The West Florida Shelf (WFS) is a broad, gently sloping continental margin that is influenced by the Gulf of Mexico Loop Current system located seaward of the shelf break (Molinari et al., 1977; Huh et al., 1981; Paluszkiewicz et al., 1983; He and Weisberg, 2003; Weisberg and He, 2003) and by local wind and buoyancy forcing, including the fresh water of the Mississippi River, generally found at mid-shelf in spring and summer (Gilbes et al., 1996; He and Weisberg, 2002). The shelf circulation is dynamically linked to its varying water properties, and particularly to temperature, which exerts a primary control on density. The close relationship between the shelf water temperature variability and the variability of net surface heat flux and ocean circulation are reported in recent studies (He and Weisberg, 2002&2003; Weisberg and He, 2003; Liu and Weisberg, 2004a). Thus, the description of characteristic patterns of the SST variability adds to our understanding of the shelf circulation and air-sea interactions (Weisberg et al., 2004).