9415898 Giese This is a numerical study of mesoscale eddies that occasionally (but regularly) develop in the eastern tropical North Pacific, which can be detected in TOPEX altimeter data. Three generation mechanisms for these eddies will be investigated: (1) the intense, primarily wintertime, wind events that blow at near-hurricane strength from the Atlantic to the Pacific through mountain passes; (2) instabilities of the equatorial currents; and, (3) a seasonally modulated instability at the eastern end of the North Equatorial Counter Current. These process-oriented numerical studies will be carried out using two models, the reduced gravity model of Chang and the GFDL Modular Ocean Model (MOM). ***
