AN UPDATED EVALUATION OF THE LOOP CURRENTS EDDY-SHEDDING FREQUENCY

The Loop Current's eddy-shedding frequency was reevaluated using two existing data sets which were updated with 5 years of additional data. The data sets are a 22-year data set (1972-1993) on the eddy-shedding period and a 17-year data set (1977-1993) of the monthly averaged distance between the northern boundary of the Loop Current and the 30 degrees N latitude line. Only Loop Current eddies having diameters larger than 250 km were considered in this study The histogram of the eddy-shedding periods indicated that there is a primary mode (9 months) and a secondary mode (14 months). The range in the data is from 6.0 to 17 months, and the average period is 11 months, with a standard deviation of +/- 3 months. In the histogram of the eddy-shedding periods the frequency of occurrence for the 11-month period is smaller than those for the primary and secondary modes. However, the 11-month period will have a frequency of occurrence identical to the secondary mode, with only one more occurrence of the 11-month period and identical to the primary mode, with two more occurrences. The spectrum of the Loop Current's northern boundary displacements indicated that the predominant period was 11.1 months, which conformed to the average separation period.