Abstract
Energy dense offshore ocean currents can be found off the east coast of most continents, with average energy densities exceeding 3 kW/m^3. The entirety of the open-ocean current based electricity production potential available to the continental U.S. can be found off the southeast U.S. coastline, with the most energy dense areas found off Florida’s east coast. Several resource assessment studies have been conducted in this region, as well as a small amount of open-ocean ocean current turbine testing. Prior resource assessment studies provide detailed statistics related to ocean current speed, direction, and energy density at several discrete locations and map some of these statistics as a function of horizontal location and/or depth. However, they do not provide a good understanding of the flow features associated with the extreme current events identified within these data sets and therefore do not provide a strong basis for the forecasting extreme events. By using bottom mounted acoustic Doppler current profiler (ADCP) data, this study first identifies extreme ocean current events (10 strongest current and 10 weakest current) that have affected proposed ocean current energy production sites over the past 15 years. Concentrating on the Florida Straits and the Gulf of Mexico, additional data types will be used to map and quantify flow features associated with these extreme events. These additional data sets include sea surface temperature data and High Frequency Radar data. Key features include the propagation of eddies, edges of the Gulf Stream, and path of the Gulf of Mexico Loop Current. Understanding the progression of these features will ultimately lead to a better understanding of extreme events, enabling the correlation between flow features and their impacts on the ocean current resource. Additionally, by correlating localized flow phenomena with flow events at ocean current test sites, this study helps lay the foundation for extreme ocean current event prediction.