The 'Processes driving Exchange At Cape Hatteras (PEACH)' program seeks to better understand the processes that drive seawater exchanges between the continental shelf and open ocean in a region of persistent along-shelf flow convergence near Cape Hatteras, North Carolina. Background on the oceanography of the region is provided to give motivation for the study and context for the measurements that were made. The questions that are posed focus on the roles that wind forcing, Gulf Stream forcing, and lateral density gradients play in driving exchange. The presentation describes the PEACH observational (and possibly modeling) efforts, summarizes what has been learned so far, and looks ahead to forthcoming analyses.

Dr. Harvey Seim is a professor of marine sciences in the Department of Earth, Marine and Environmental Sciences at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (UNC). Dr. Seim recieved his PhD at the University of Washington and was a postdoc at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution and faculty at the Skidaway Institute of Oceanography in Savannah, GA before joining the faculty at UNC in 2000. His research has largely focused on the physical oceanography of coastal and estuarine settings. Dr. Seim is an observational oceanographer and has deployed a variety of platforms and instrumentation, and he has participated in the deployment of coastal ocean observing systems for much of his career. He presently serves as lead principal investigator for the PEACH program.

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