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| Title: | On the relationship between the water mass pathways and eddy variability in the Western Mediterranean Sea |
| Authors: | Demirov, E.*
Pinardi, N.* |
| Keywords: | water mass dynamics
Gulf of Lyons |
| Issue Date: | 2007 |
| Publisher: | AGU |
| Title of journal: | Journal of Geophysical Research |
| Series/Report no.: | / 112 (2007) |
| Abstract: | The role of mesoscales on the formation and spreading of water masses
in the Western Mediterranean Sea (WMED) is studied with an ocean
general circulation model (OGCM). The model is forced with inter-
annually variable surface forcing for the years from 1979 to 1999.
The simulations are compared with some recent observational studies
of the mesoscale processes in the WMED. It is found that the model
reproduces the major features of the observed mesoscale variability
during the preconditioning of the deep convection in the Gulf of
Lions and also the large mesoscale eddies evolution in the Algerian
Basin.
Thus the model is used to study the deep convection in the Gulf of
Lions and the processes of spreading of deep waters after the
convection period. The simulations suggest that the flow structure
during the preconditioning period is dominated by the Ligurian-
Provencal Current in the surface and intermediate layers, which
intensifies, meanders and forms a mesoscale vortex over the Rhone
fan. In the deep layers the density structures due to the old deep
waters tend to organise in (deep) mesoscale cyclonic eddies. The
instability of the transition zone between old and newly formed deep
waters, which takes place after the violent mixing stages of the deep
convection, leads to collapse of the mixed patch and formation of
mesoscale eddies. Some of these eddies propagate out of the Gulf of
Lions transporting deep waters into the Algerian Basin. The rest of
the mesoscale eddies filled with newly formed deep waters remain in
the Gulf of Lions, and tend to merge, enlarge and reorganise in an
area with two or three large cyclonic eddies.
After the cyclonic eddies reach the Algerian Basin they interact with
the intense mesoscale field existing there. The model data together
with the available satellite SLA data reveal a regular westward
propagation of mesoscale eddies in the Northern Algerian Basin. This
transport together with southward propagation of mesoscale eddies out
of the Gulf of Lions is suggesting that the intermediate and deep
waters of the WMED are transported westward by mesoscale eddies.
Equivalently we can argue the intermediate and deep waters conveyor
belt of the WMED is eddy driven. |
| URI: | http://hdl.handle.net/2122/3492 |
| DOI: | 10.1029/2005JC003174 |
| Appears in Collections: | Papers Published / Papers in press
03.01.05. Operational oceanography
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