Analysis of Ocean Current Observations in the Northern

Veracruz Coral Reef System, Mexico: 2007–12

Authors: Allende-Arandía, María E., Zavala-Hidalgo, Jorge, Romero-

Centeno, Rosario, Mateos-Jasso, Adriana, Vargas-Hernández, Juan
M., et al.
Source: Journal of Coastal Research, 32(1) : 46-55
Published By: Coastal Education and Research Foundation
URL: https://doi.org/10.2112/JCOASTRES-D-14-00148.1

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 Journal of Coastal Research 32 1 46–55 Coconut Creek, Florida January 2016

Analysis of Ocean Current Observations in the Northern

Veracruz Coral Reef System, Mexico: 2007–12
Marı́a E. Allende-Arandı́a†, Jorge Zavala-Hidalgo†*, Rosario Romero-Centeno†,
Adriana Mateos-Jasso†, Juan M. Vargas-Hernández‡, and Luis Zamudio§
† ‡
Centro de Ciencias de la Atmósfera Instituto de Ciencias Marinas y Pesquerı́as
Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México Universidad Veracruzana
Coyoacán, DF 04510, México Boca del Rı́o, Veracruz 94290, México
§
Center for Ocean-Atmospheric Prediction Studies
Florida State University
Tallahassee, FL 32306, U.S.A.

ABSTRACT
Allende-Arandı́a, M.E.; Zavala-Hidalgo, J.; Romero-Centeno, R.; Mateos-Jasso, A.; Vargas-Hernández, J.M., and
Zamudio, L., 2016. Analysis of ocean current observations in the northern Veracruz Coral Reef System, Mexico: 2007–12.
Journal of Coastal Research, 32(1), 46–55. Coconut Creek (Florida), ISSN 0749-0208.

The Veracruz Coral Reef System (VCRS) is a marine protected area located on the continental shelf of Veracruz, in the
SW Gulf of Mexico, that is formed by two reef conglomerates: one to the north, in front of the Port of Veracruz, and one to
the south, in front of the Antón Lizardo tip. To characterize the currents and their variability for the northern reefs of the
VCRS, ocean currents, meteorological parameters, and sea-level observations for the period 2007–12 were analyzed. The
temporal variability of the currents was dominated by 2- to 10-day lasting events associated with the atmospheric
synoptic conditions through the forcing of the along-coast wind-stress component over the Tamaulipas-Veracruz shelf.
During autumn–winter, strong episodic southeastward currents prevailed, reaching more than 1 ms1, and they were
associated with the intrusion of atmospheric high-pressure systems into the Gulf of Mexico. However, some episodes of
strong southeastward currents observed in spring–summer were forced by low-pressure systems (tropical storms). From
May to August, weak northwestward currents were predominant, with speeds lower than 0.40 ms1. Annually,
southeastward (northwestward) currents were observed 45–60% (40–55%) of the time, with an average of 55% (45%).
Tidal currents are one order of magnitude weaker than the wind-driven currents. A multiple linear regression model for
the along-shelf currents, which is based on the wind stress, explains most of the observed variance and performs well in
reproducing the autumn–winter strong southeastward events but underestimates those observed in summer.

ADDITIONAL INDEX WORDS: Shelf currents, local and remote forcing, western Gulf of Mexico, coral reefs.

INTRODUCTION suggest that the circulation in the VCRS has a seasonality,

The Veracruz Coral Reef System (VCRS) is a 400-km2
marine-protected area, rich in flora and fauna, located over
the continental shelf of the SW Gulf of Mexico (GoM) in the
central part of the state of Veracruz. The VCRS comprises
islands, islets, and two groups of reefs: one formed by 11 coral
reefs located to the north, in front of the Port of Veracruz and
Boca del Rı́o City, and the other formed by 12 coral reefs located
to the south, in front of the Antón Lizardo municipality (Figure
1). The length of the coral reefs varies from approximately 0.3
km to 3.2 km, and their areas range from 1 km2 to 19 km2 (Lara
et al., 1993; Salas-Pérez and Granados-Barba, 2008). The
northern group of reefs, which is the study area of this
research, is located between the coast and the 40-m isobath; it
is characterized by a complex ocean floor topography consisting
of shallow sand banks, reefs, and islands, forming a series of
channels with varying sizes and depths (Figure 1).
Previous studies, based on numerical simulations forced with
monthly climatological winds that include the entire GoM,
DOI: 10.2112/JCOASTRES-D-14-00148.1 received 1 August 2014;
accepted in revision 19 February 2015; corrected proofs received
7 April 2015; published pre-print online 30 April 2015.
*Corresponding author: jzavala@atmosfera.unam.mx
Ó
Coastal Education and Research Foundation, Inc. 2016
with average southeastward currents from September to
March and northwestward currents from May to August, while
April is a transition month (Morey, Zavala-Hidalgo, and
O’Brien, 2005; Zavala-Hidalgo, Morey, and O’Brien, 2003).
This seasonality has also been observed in sea surface
temperature satellite images by means of a persistent summer
upwelling occurring along the Tamaulipas-Veracruz shelf
(Zavala-Hidalgo et al., 2006). A few studies on the VCRS
circulation have focused on time scales different from the
seasonal scale. Salas-Pérez and Granados-Barba (2008), based
on a bibliographic review of the hydrodynamics in SW GoM,
discussed the local and basin-wide scale forcing and suggested
that the VCRS may be forced by tides, winds, and eddies
located along the slope because the shelf is relatively narrow
there. Based on high-frequency current measurements along
the shelf break of the western GoM, Dubranna et al. (2011)
showed the presence of coastal-trapped waves generated in the
northern shelf of the state of Tamaulipas. They also showed
that in addition to the along-coast wind-stress forcing, eddies in
the Campeche Bay affect the external shelf circulation, a
feature that was also observed by Salas-Pérez et al. (2012).
It is particularly important to better understand the
circulation in the VCRS because, regarding its area coverage,
it ranks second among the coral reef areas in the Mexican

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 Analysis of Current Observations in Veracruz, Mexico 47

Figure 1. Location of the Veracruz Coral Reef System in the SW Gulf of Mexico. The black square indicates the location of the tide gauge at Veracruz city, and the
circles indicate the location of the current meters at the northern group of reefs. Isobaths every 10 m are shown, and reefs are shaded.

shelves, surpassed only by the Mesoamerican Barrier. The
VCRS is a region of great scientific interest for its high
ecological diversity and its connectivity with other coral reef
areas of the southern and western GoM (Sanvicente-Añorve et
al., 2014), besides its importance for the touristic and economic
sectors of the country; however, the VCRS is under strong
pressure from the activities of the city and the Port of Veracruz
and the discharge of several rivers. The city discharges polluted
waters into the area, there is a project to extend the Port, and
the discharging rivers carry an excess of sediments from the
deforested areas upstream. To better manage and preserve the
VCRS, improving the knowledge of the circulation in the area is
an urgent need. Results from this study may also be useful to
validate and tune numerical models that will be implemented
for the VCRS.
The purpose of this study is to describe and analyze the
variability of the intensity and direction of the observed
currents in the northern VCRS (NVCRS) and explain the
origin of that variability at different temporal scales, including
diurnal, synoptic (2–10 days), intraseasonal, seasonal, and
interannual scales. To do this, six years of ocean current
observations from a current profiler are analyzed. Also, the
tidal current components are computed, and the relation of the
currents with the local and remote winds is revised.
METHODS
A combination of in situ observations and numerical
simulations is used to describe and analyze the currents and
their variability in the NVCRS. Measurements of ocean
currents, sea level, and atmospheric variables were used
together with reanalysis data from the North American
Regional Reanalysis (NARR, 2014) and numerical simulations
from the Weather Research and Forecasting (WRF, 2014)
model.
Current Meter Data
Ocean currents were measured with a 600-kHz Nortek
Aquadopp Acoustic Doppler Current Profiler (ADCP) that was
deployed at a site located between the Anegada de Adentro and
Isla Verde reefs at a depth of approximately 30 m and 8 km
offshore (Figure 1). Initially, ADCP measurements were also
taken between La Gallega and Galleguilla reefs at a depth of 15
m and 1.2 km offshore, a site that is located about 8 km from the
other ADCP. Simultaneous measurements at both locations
were obtained during two relatively short periods, September–

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 48
Figure 2. Scatter diagram of the meridional vs. zonal components of the
currents (ms1) (dots) and the average velocity (arrow) for 2007–12. Rotated
axes along the direction of maximum variance (called the principal direction)
are also plotted.
October 2006 and December 2006–January 2007, and the
correlations between the low-pass filtered series of the
vertically averaged along-coast current component were
computed. The correlation values for the two mentioned
periods were very high, 0.92 and 0.96, respectively, and the
amplitude of the variations was also very similar. Therefore,
the measurements at the Anegada de Adentro-Isla Verde site
were considered representative of the currents in the NVCRS
area.
The ADCP sampling frequency was 30 minutes, with 2-m-
wide cells and a blanking distance of 0.50 m (the distance above
the instrument without observations). Current measurements
were collected along 1837 days from 2007 to 2012, which
represent ~84% of the total number of days in that six-year
period. Of these days, 136 (37%) correspond to 2007, 301 (82%)
to 2008, 304 (84%) to 2009, 365 (100%) to each of the years 2010
and 2011, and 366 (100%) to 2012.
Ocean-current data were filtered to eliminate tidal and
inertial frequencies by applying a Lanczos low-pass filter with a
36-hour cut-off frequency. The direction of maximum variance
of the currents (hereafter called principal direction [PD]) was
determined from the filtered data following Emery and
Thompson (2001). In the principal axes system, the variations
are maximized in one component (the PD) and minimized in the
orthogonal component (the secondary direction [SD]). For the
purpose of describing the dynamics, the PD can be considered
as the along-coast direction because both are practically
coincident. The scatter diagram of the vertically averaged
currents (zonal vs. meridional components) for the whole period
shows that most of them were oriented in a nearly NW-SE
direction (Figure 2). Henceforth, northwestward and south-
eastward directions are considered parallel to the PD.
Annually, the PD describes 96.8%, 97.2%, 96.6%, 96.1%,
95.2%, and 94.1% of the observed variance in years 2007 to
2012, respectively; furthermore, the mean speeds of the
southeastward currents were 0.146 ms1, 0.082 ms1, 0.053
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Allende-Arandı́a et al.
ms1, 0.100 ms1, 0.050 ms1, and 0.059 ms1, respectively.
Therefore, most of the analysis was performed using the
rotated axes along the direction of maximum variance.
Atmospheric Data
The NARR (2014) 10-m wind data for the period 2007–12
were used to calculate the along-coast wind-stress component
(ACWSC). These reanalysis data have a spatial resolution of
~32 km and a 3-hour temporal resolution. The wind-stress
components, sx and sy, were parameterized as follows:
sx ¼ CD qūu;
sy ¼ CD qūv;
where CD is the drag coefficient, q is air density (1.23 kg m3),
and ū ¼ (u, v) is the horizontal wind vector. CD is variable and
depends on the wind speed; for low wind speeds its value is
around 1.1 3 103, while for wind speeds greater than 6 ms1, a
linear relationship of the form CD ¼ (0.61 þ 0.063ū) 3 103 is
established (Gill, 1982).
The ACWSC was computed using basic geometry by
obtaining the inclination angle of a smoothed coast (a ¼
143.58) and then the unit vector in that direction, which was
used to project the wind stress. The obtained series of the
ACWSC were filtered using the same criteria as for the ocean-
current data.
Numerical simulations with the WRF model were used in the
analysis of the influence of tropical cyclones in the area. These
simulations are from the operational numerical weather
forecast of the Centro de Ciencias de la Atmósfera of the
Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México (CCA-UNAM,
2015).
Wind, relative humidity, air temperature, and atmospheric
pressure data from a meteorological station located on the
Veracruz city shoreline (19811 0 31 00 N, 9687 0 24 00 W) were also
used for the analysis. These data, available for a short period in
March 2010, had a temporal resolution of 10 minutes and were
provided by the Servicio Mareográfico Nacional (SMN, Mexi-
can Sea Level Service) of UNAM (SMN-UNAM, 2015). The
temperature and relative humidity sensor is a Rotronic HC2-S
with ranges from 40 to 608C and from 0 to 100%, respectively.
The pressure sensor is a Setra 278 with a range from 800 to
1100 mb, and the wind sensor is a Gill Windobserver 70 with a
range from 0 to 70 ms1. A low-pass filter was applied to the
meteorological data using the same criteria as for the current
data.
Sea-Level Data
Sea-level data for Veracruz were also provided by the SMN-
UNAM for 2007–12. Float (OTT Thalimedes) and radar (OTT
Kalesto) sea-level sensors are located at the same site as the
meteorological station, and data were sampled every 10
minutes.
RESULTS
In general, the variability of the currents was characterized
by episodes that lasted from 2 to 15 days and with an
alternating direction along the PD (either southeastward or
northwestward). The duration of the episodes had a peak in the
 Analysis of Current Observations in Veracruz, Mexico
Figure 3. Currents in the water column along the principal direction in the
NVCRS 2007–12. Positive (negative) values indicate southeastward (north-
westward) direction.
interval from 2 to 4 days, which includes 38% of the cases.
Episodes lasting up to 10 days include 90% of the cases, and
those lasting up to 15 days include 97.5% of the cases. The
event that lasted longest was 30 days.
The vertical structure of the currents along the PD for the
period 2007–12 is shown in Figure 3. During most of the
sampling period, the currents in the water column showed a
weak vertical shear, with the same direction and similar
magnitude from surface to bottom. When currents were
intense, they had the same direction in the entire column,
but, in general, they were more intense in the upper layers.
Therefore, most of the analysis is carried out using the
vertically averaged currents.
Ocean Current Response to Synoptic-Scale Winds
It has been reported that prevailing winds in the western
GoM are easterlies/northeasterlies in autumn–winter and
easterlies/southeasterlies in spring–summer (Gutiérrez de
Velasco and Winant, 1996). During autumn–winter, frontal
systems cross the GoM causing a drop in temperature, an
increase in atmospheric pressure, and strong northerlies
(DiMego, Bosart, and Endersen, 1976; Schultz et al., 1997).
The cold fronts collide with moist air masses, generating
cloudiness and heavy rainfall. The winds generated by these
systems, so-called northers, which occur mainly from Septem-
ber to April, can be very intense, reaching speeds above 20
ms1.
The response of the currents and weather conditions to
northers in the NVCRS is illustrated, as an example, for a
period during March 2010 (Figure 4). The ACWSC strongly
increased at the arrival of the norther, and, a short time later,
the currents strengthened, peaking later and lasting longer
than the strong winds. During the norther events, the
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49
Figure 4. (a) Magnitude of the vertically averaged currents along the
principal direction in the NVCRS during March 2010. Meteorological
variables measured during the same period in Veracruz city: (b) along-coast
wind-stress component, (c) relative humidity, (d) air temperature, and (e)
sea-level pressure. Shading indicates the occurrence of norther events. The
black line represents the low-pass filtered series.
temperature and relative humidity dropped, and the atmo-
spheric pressure increased.
All intense ocean currents, considered as those episodes
when currents along the PD attained a magnitude equal or
greater than 0.7 ms1, were caused by northers and lasted from
1 to 4 days. In the 6 years of observations, 22 of these events
occurred (recalling that there are some gaps in the time series),
with an average of 3.7 per year but with a large interannual
variability (Figure 5). These events occurred during approxi-
mately 1% of the period of observation.
Winds from the NARR for a site near the location of the
current meter were used to analyze the wind-stress contribu-
tion to the ocean currents. The time series of the local ACWSC
over the 25-m isobath (estimated from the NARR wind data)
and the currents along the PD are compared in Figure 5, and
their monthly and annual correlations are shown in Table 1.
Strong wind events caused by the northers in autumn–winter
had associated intense southeastward currents in the NVCRS,
and the correlation values between the ACWSC and the
currents along the PD were high.
During the summer months, when winds are relatively
weak, the correlations reduce, and, in some cases, they are
not significant (Table 1). The importance of remote forcing
was estimated from the correlations between the local
currents and the ACWSC over the Tamaulipas-Veracruz
(TAVE) shelf (from the Mexico-U.S. border to the VCRS) and
over the Texas-Louisiana (LATEX) shelf (Table 1). These
computations were performed looking for the possible
influence of coastal-trapped waves on the NVCRS currents.
The correlations of the currents in the NVCRS with the
ACWSC over the TAVE shelf were similar to those obtained
when the local ACWSC was considered and were smaller
when the ACWSC over the LATEX shelf was considered.
Results show that correlations for individual months were
 50 Allende-Arandı́a et al.

A response lag exists between the currents and surface-wind

stress in the NVCRS, which peaked after 7.5 hours, 15.0 hours,
and 25.0 hours with respect to the local, TAVE, and LATEX
winds, respectively. The lowest correlations were obtained for
May–August, indicating that other processes, such as off-shelf
eddies (Dubranna et al., 2011), could be important forcings
during this period of the year. Other processes such as the
along-shelf pressure gradients may be important, as has been
reported for other regions (Lentz, 2008).

Figure 5. Time series of the 36-h low-pass filtered vertically averaged
currents along the principal direction (green) and the along-coast wind-
stress component (red) for 2007–12. Positive (negative) values indicate
southeastward (northwestward) direction. Black dots indicate events of
intense currents during autumn–winter. Purple (pink) shading indicates
periods when currents in the upper (lower) layer had a northwestward
(southeastward) direction and in the lower layer had a southeastward
(northwestward) direction.
variable, suggesting that remote forcing has an important
contribution on the NVCRS currents, as shown by Dubranna
et al. (2011) who found a contribution of coastal-trapped
waves in the western GoM currents.
Vertical Structure
There were events, mainly during spring–summer (April–
September), when currents in the upper layer were northwest-
ward, while in the lower layer they were southeastward,
although some isolated events also occurred in other months
(Figure 5). Ocean currents were weak during all of these
events, 51 in total, and they lasted as much as 12 days, with a
mean of 3.5 days and a standard deviation (STD) of 2.3 days.
These events happened, in some cases, when local wind stress
was favorable to northwestward currents.
There were also periods when the ocean currents in the upper
layer were southeastward, while in the lower layer they were
northwestward. These events also happened when currents
were weak and were observed mainly during summer–autumn
(July–November), although there were some in other months
(March 2010, May 2008 and 2012) (Figure 5). There were 31
events identified with these characteristics, with a mean
duration of 2.7 days and a STD of 1.6 days; the largest event
lasted 9 days. During these events, winds were weak,
frequently with a southeastward along-coast component. In
many cases, the events occurred after a period of northwest-
ward currents, which suggests that the upper layer responds
faster to the local wind, generating the observed shear. In other

Table 1. Monthly and annual correlations between the current along the principal direction, and the along-coast wind stress component (ACWSC) measured
at the NVCRS; the mean ACWSC along the 25-m isobath over the Texas-Louisiana shelf (LATEX), and the mean ACWSC along the 25-m isobath over the
Tamaulipas-Veracruz shelf (TAVE). Only months with more than 50% of measurements were considered for the calculations (see Table 2). Values in boldface
indicate significant correlation at the 95% confidence level.

Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec Annual
2007
LATEX 0.67 — — — — — — — 0.55 0.72 0.47 0.32 0.60
TAVE 0.90 — — — — — — — 0.33 0.80 0.54 0.75 0.79
NVCRS 0.88 — — — — — — — 0.43 0.77 0.65 0.80 0.73
2008
LATEX 0.57 0.13 0.17 0.07 0.40 — 0.06 0.39 0.10 0.62 0.15 0.15 0.22
TAVE 0.76 0.60 0.71 0.71 0.58 — 0.26 0.27 0.68 0.76 0.64 0.73 0.68
NVCRS 0.71 0.77 0.83 0.86 0.54 — 0.57 0.33 0.73 0.85 0.65 0.81 0.68
2009
LATEX 0.35 0.08 0.13 0.17 0.74 — 0.77 — 0.33 0.41 0.56 0.47 0.36
TAVE 0.84 0.76 0.73 0.78 0.86 — 0.82 — 0.55 0.57 0.84 0.76 0.77
NVCRS 0.87 0.56 0.73 0.77 0.89 — 0.45 — 0.70 0.46 0.75 0.70 0.65
2010
LATEX 0.49 0.50 0.10 0.23 0.13 0.61 0.23 0.17 0.65 0.76 0.49 0.32 0.42
TAVE 0.87 0.64 0.74 0.65 0.39 0.44 0.03 0.45 0.76 0.76 0.67 0.73 0.70
NVCRS 0.86 0.70 0.84 0.73 0.28 0.61 0.43 0.25 0.86 0.78 0.79 0.71 0.70
2011
LATEX 0.46 0.62 0.22 0.43 0.47 0.48 0.22 0.02 0.25 0.09 0.30 0.34 0.31
TAVE 0.80 0.89 0.80 0.76 0.83 0.53 0.14 0.20 0.71 0.71 0.76 0.76 0.77
NVCRS 0.82 0.89 0.75 0.79 0.85 0.44 0.35 0.52 0.80 0.79 0.78 0.79 0.72
2012
LATEX 0.11 0.62 0.34 0.35 0.34 0.71 0.38 0.31 0.37 0.51 0.49 0.40 0.36
TAVE 0.71 0.76 0.75 0.59 0.48 0.28 0.34 0.45 0.34 0.66 0.60 0.79 0.62
NVCRS 0.79 0.75 0.69 0.53 0.57 0.27 0.19 0.57 0.43 0.71 0.52 0.79 0.58

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 Analysis of Current Observations in Veracruz, Mexico 51

Figure 6. Annual frequency distributions of the ocean current magnitude
(ms1) along the principal direction from 2007–12 (upper panels) and the
frequency distribution for the whole period of observations (bottom panel).
Positive (negative) values indicate southeastward (northwestward) currents.
cases, the events occurred in the middle of a period with
southeastward favorable winds, which may be caused by
upwelling coastal-trapped waves that drive the subsurface
local currents in the opposite direction to the weak local winds.
Seasonal Variability
The ocean currents in the NVCRS have a strong seasonal
modulation, with events of intense currents from September to
April and weak to moderate currents from May to August (see
Figures 3 and 5). During summer, the currents persisted for
longer periods with the same direction. Some events of
relatively strong southeastward currents during June–July
2010 are subsequently discussed.
The annual frequency distributions of currents along the PD
show that southeastward currents attained speeds above 0.50
ms1 around 5% of the time, reaching occasionally more than
1.0 ms1 (Figure 6). Northwestward currents were weaker,
mainly with speeds below 0.20 ms1 and maximum intensities
of about 0.40 ms1. The frequency distribution of currents along
the PD for the whole period of observations shows a maximum
in the 0.15 to 0.00 ms1 interval and a positive skewness
toward values in the southeastward direction (Figure 6).
The average monthly percentages of occurrence of south-
eastward currents (Table 2), computed with respect to the
corresponding number of days with measurements for 2007 to
2012, show that they were more frequently observed from
September to February and less often from March to August,
except in June when they occurred more than 50% of the time.
The frequency of occurrence of southeastward currents has a
peak in September and the northwestward currents in April
(Table 2).
Interannual Variability
There is a strong interannual variability in the NVCRS,
which is evident in the different percentages of occurrence of
southeastward currents from one year to the next (Table 2).
When a 36-hour low-pass filtering is applied to the currents
along the PD, the percentage of occurrence changes by less
than 2% as a consequence of the relatively low contribution of

Table 2. Monthly and annual number of days with ocean current measurements and percentage of occurrence of southeastward currents (the component along
the direction of maximum variance) computed with respect to the corresponding number of days with measurements for 2007–12. The global monthly and
annual percentages are also included.

Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec Annual
2007
NDM 27 — — — — — — 2 30 20 30 27 136
PO 70.0 — — — — — — 68.2 69.9 82.1 67.2 41.4 65.4
2008
NDM 31 18 30 30 15 9 31 30 27 31 18 31 301
PO 62.1 58.3 50.5 34.8 82.3 78.8 44.0 41.9 78.6 96.2 25.9 62.9 53.5
2009
NDM 31 10 27 30 19 3 31 31 30 31 30 31 304
PO 51.6 30.7 35.1 24.4 12.8 0 7.7 62.2 82.4 42.6 78.6 79.9 48.0
2010
NDM 31 28 31 30 31 30 31 31 30 31 30 31 365
PO 58.0 95.8 53.6 49.4 45.8 59.3 56.8 48.3 79.6 58.3 58.2 56.1 59.6
2011
NDM 31 28 31 30 31 30 31 31 30 31 30 31 365
PO 43.2 44.2 29.2 23.5 31 47.4 39.1 52.7 42.4 66.4 59.8 58.5 44.8
2012
NDM 31 29 31 30 31 30 31 31 30 31 30 31 366
PO 61.2 73.1 39.5 46.7 64.4 68.1 70.6 32.5 75.1 42.7 51.4 43.7 55.6
Global
NDM 182 113 150 150 127 102 155 156 177 175 168 182 1837
PO 57.4 65.5 41.7 35.7 38.5 53.2 43.6 47.7 71.2 63.6 59.1 57.4 53.4

NDM ¼ Number of days with measurements.

PO ¼ Percentage of occurrence.

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 52 Allende-Arandı́a et al.

Figure 7. Winds at 10 m (barbs in km h1) and sea-level pressure contours (every 2 hPa) from the Weather Research and Forecasting model simulations for (a) 25
June 2010 (1100 local time), (b) 7 July 2010 (1500 local time), and (c) 18 July 2010 (0900 local time). Color contours indicate wind intensity according to the color
bar scale (where C1 to C5 stand for hurricane categories).

the higher frequencies (daily or higher). Southeastward
currents occurred from 44.8% in 2011 to 59.6% in 2010 (2007
is not considered because of the large amount of missing data),
with an average of 53.4% for the whole period, noting that there
were about 83% of measurements in 2008 and 2009 (Table 2).
The variability of the occurrence of southeastward currents
is larger when individual months are compared. For instance,
in October 2008, these currents were observed 96.2% of the
time; however, in 2009 and 2012, they occurred around 43% of
the time (Table 2). Also, February is a month with a large
interannual variability.
Ocean currents in the NVCRS also showed large variations
in the summer months. In July 2012, for instance, the
percentage of occurrence of southeastward currents was as
high as 70.6%, while in 2009, it was only 7.7% (Table 2). In
autumn–winter, dominated by northers and strong currents,
as well as in summer, characterized by weaker winds, currents
showed large variability.
Intraseasonal Variability
During summer, there were episodes of relatively strong
southeastward currents that lasted for several days. Three
meteorological events occurred during summer 2010, which
generated intense southeastward currents that reached up to
0.50 ms1. To analyze these wind events, numerical simula-
tions using the WRF model were examined. The intense
northerly winds were better reproduced by the WRF simula-
tion than by the NARR data, probably because of its higher
resolution and better representation of the topographic
features of the Sierra Madre mountain range, inshore of the
VCRS. The first event was a tropical cyclone that became
hurricane Alex and lasted from 25 June to 1 July (NASA,
2010a). On the 25 June, relatively strong northerly winds along
the coast of Veracruz developed as a consequence of the
atmospheric cyclonic circulation associated with the storm,
which was centered on 168N, 848W and extended from the
western Caribbean to the SW GoM (Figure 7a). The atmo-
spheric low-pressure system became a tropical storm on 26
June, reaching the Yucatan Peninsula and the GoM by the 28
June. On 30 June, the storm strengthened into hurricane Alex,
moving toward northern Tamaulipas, where it made landfall.
It was observed that the strongest currents in the NVCRS
developed on the 25 and 26 June, before the system reached

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 Analysis of Current Observations in Veracruz, Mexico
Table 3. Diurnal and semidiurnal tidal constituents of sea level (SL) and
currents (CU) along the principal direction. The standard deviations
(STDs) were computed from the annual estimations for the years 2007–12.
SL (3102 m) CU (3102 ms1)
Period (h) 6 STD 6 STD
Diurnal
K1 23.93 16.00 6 0.83 0.66 6 0.48
O1 25.82 16.51 6 1.26 0.37 6 0.20
P1 24.07 4.73 6 0.38 0.66 6 0.40
Semidiurnal
M2 12.42 8.64 6 0.14 0.14 6 0.12
S2 12.00 2.17 6 0.07 0.33 6 0.22
N2 12.66 2.18 6 0.11 0.11 6 0.08
hurricane strength, as a consequence of the large atmospheric
cyclonic circulation that dominated wind patterns in the SW
GoM.
The second event of strong southeastward currents was
observed during 7–13 July 2010, caused by a low-pressure
system that crossed the Yucatan Peninsula and became
Tropical Depression No. 2 (Figure 7b) (NASA, 2010b). The
system crossed the GoM following a SE-NW path, offshore of
Veracruz city, and generated northeasterlies along the western
GoM that caused intense southeastward currents in the
NVCRS for several days (see Figure 5).
Another low-pressure system over the western Caribbean
and the Yucatan Peninsula, with an associated extended
cyclonic circulation, was observed on 17 July. At the same
time, a low pressure over the Gulf of Tehuantepec favored the
development of northerlies over the VCRS (Figure 7c). The
situation was similar to that observed before the development
of hurricane Alex, but this system did not reach hurricane or
tropical storm category; however, it generated northerly winds
and southeastward currents in the NVCRS during several
days, although they were weaker than those associated with
previous events. In June 2012, a low-pressure system over the
Bay of Campeche also caused southeastward currents with
similar patterns to those previously described.
These results show that during the tropical storm season,
easterly waves (atmospheric systems coming from the tropical
Eastern Atlantic) and tropical cyclones strongly affect the
circulation in the area for several days while they approach and
cross the southern and western GoM. Usually, these events
occur one after another, following similar trajectories and
causing a considerable impact on the NVCRS circulation,
regardless of their intensity.
Tidal Currents and Diurnal Frequency
Tidal components were computed using the tide gauge data
for sea level and currents measured with the current meter.
The most critical contributions to the tidal components of the
sea level were the diurnal components, K1 and O1, while the
semidiurnal component, M2, had around half of the amplitude
of K1 and O1 (Table 3). The tidal contribution to the currents is
around 1 3 102 ms1, which is one or two orders of magnitude
smaller than the instantaneous currents.
A harmonic analysis was applied to the currents (following
Emery and Thompson [2001]), which shows that along the PD
there is more energy in the subtidal periods (2–10 days), while
along the SD there is a peak in the diurnal frequency, which
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53
can be associated with the sea breeze, although the energy in
this direction is much smaller. For this computation, the data
without filtering was used (not shown).
DISCUSSION
Nearly half of the time, the currents in the NVCRS flow in
each of the directions along the PD (southeastward or
northwestward), but the mean currents are southeastward.
The duration of episodes with intense southeastward
currents during autumn–winter was different from year to
year (see Figures 3 and 5) because of the different duration of
the northers that penetrated into the GoM. The interannual
variability of intense southeastward currents during summer
is associated with the number of tropical storms and easterly
waves whose trajectories affect the VCRS. The mean current,
although it is a limited indicator, corroborates an important
interannual variability because it was 0.10 ms1 in 2010 and
around 0.05 ms1 in 2011. Therefore, meteorological events
modify the winds in the VCRS, particularly along the coast of
Veracruz, generating persistent northerlies/northeasterlies
and causing changes in the direction and intensity of the
currents (see Figures 5 and 7).
The seasonality of the low-frequency currents reported by
Zavala-Hidalgo, Morey, and O’Brien (2003) was corroborated,
but a large interannual variability exists; the frequency of
southeastward currents varies from 35.7% (April) to 71.2%
(September), with a large observed interannual variability (see
Table 2). Results from this study show that there is a high
probability of occurrence of currents in both directions in any
time of the year, which is important for the advection of low-
salinity and low-temperature waters from the NW shelves of
the GoM into the VCRS, favoring the presence of lower surface
temperatures and temperature inversions (Mateos-Jasso et al.,
2012), as well as population connectivity, larval transport, and
pollution dispersion (James, 2002; Pineda, Hare, and Sponau-
gle, 2007; Sanvicente-Añorve et al., 2014). These results may be
important to develop better strategies to reduce the environ-
mental impact of the new Port, which is planned to be located in
the northern area of the NVCRS.
A Model for the Currents in the NVCRS
The high correlation between the measured currents along
the PD and the local and remote ACWS suggested a model for
the currents in the NVCRS, considering stresses with a lag
with respect to the currents. The multiple linear regression
model, following Dzwonkowski and Park (2010), considers the
local, TAVE, and LATEX along-shelf stresses, with lags
obtained from the lag correlations and running means of the
stresses for a 36-hour window.
The coefficients were computed for the 2012 data and then
applied to the 2007–12 series. Annual correlations between
modeled and observed currents were from 0.75 to 0.85, with an
average of 0.79. The modeled currents reproduce the strong
autumn–winter events, in most cases with a similar intensity,
and the northwestward currents between norther events, but
the summer events are underestimated (Figure 8). The simple
model does not account for the contributions of the along-shelf
pressure gradient and off-shelf influence of eddies over the
slope, which may be important in those events.
 54 Allende-Arandı́a et al.
Figure 8. Time series of the vertically averaged currents along the principal
direction (black) compared with the modeled currents (gray) for 2007–12.
CONCLUSIONS
This study analyzes the ocean currents in the NVCRS, their
variability in different time scales and forcing mechanisms,
using several years of measurements. Results show that
currents in the NVCRS have high energy in the atmospheric
synoptic time scale (2–10 days), with currents changing in
intensity and direction in that frequency. Events of strong
currents that last a few days occur in the area, and they are
mainly observed from September to March. These intense
currents have a southeastward direction, reaching speeds
higher than 0.5 ms1 and, in a few cases, above 1 ms1; they are
caused by the northers that penetrate into the GoM in
autumn–winter. On the other hand, northwestward currents
occurred more frequently from April to August, and, on
average, they were weaker than southeastward currents,
showing magnitudes lower than 0.40 ms1 most of the time.
The annual averages of the along-shelf currents showed that
from 45% to 60% of the time, the currents in the NVCRS had a
southeastward direction, but an important interannual vari-
ability occurred that became larger when individual months
were considered. During tropical storm season, atmospheric
easterly waves and tropical cyclones cross the southern GoM,
generating northerly winds in the NVCRS and inducing
relatively strong and persistent southeastward currents that
may last longer than those observed in autumn–winter.
The ocean currents are mainly wind driven, and the
contribution of tides is very small. The contribution of the
along-shelf pressure gradient in the VCRS was not reviewed,
and eddies may have a contribution to the observed currents
when they are located over the slope, being that their influence
is noticeable when the wind forcing is weak.
A simple model based on the along-shelf wind stresses
reproduced most of the variability observed in the NVCRS, in
particular the strong events during autumn–winter associated
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with the northers, but underestimated the events observed in
summer. There are not observations at different sites in the
cross-shelf direction; therefore, the cross-shelf circulation was
not analyzed in this study.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
The authors would like to thank the valuable comments
and suggestions from three anonymous reviewers that helped
to greatly improve this manuscript. Marı́a Elena Osorio-Tai
helped in the elaboration of the figures, and Octavio Gómez
Ramos helped with the numerical simulations outputs. The
Servicio Mareográfico Nacional from the Universidad Nacio-
nal Autónoma de México provided the sea-level data. This
work was funded by projects CNA-CONACYT 2004-02-24,
SEP-CONACYT 133299, PAPIIT 120408-3, and PAPIIT
IN116111.
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