Arms winding around a meddy seen in seismic reflection data close to the Morocco coastline
The North Atlantic temperature and salinity distributions are strongly influenced by the existence of Mediterranean eddies (meddies) which significantly contribute to the transport of the warm and salty Mediterranean Water along different pathways. The most common pathways are observed to be North a...
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ftarchimer:oai:archimer.ifremer.fr:18499 2023-05-15T17:34:06+02:00 Arms winding around a meddy seen in seismic reflection data close to the Morocco coastline Menesguen, Claire Hua, Bach-lien Carton, Xavier Klingelhoefer, Frauke Schnurle, Philippe Reichert, C. 2012-03 application/pdf https://archimer.ifremer.fr/doc/00074/18499/16046.pdf https://doi.org/10.1029/2011GL050798 https://archimer.ifremer.fr/doc/00074/18499/ eng eng Amer Geophysical Union https://archimer.ifremer.fr/doc/00074/18499/16046.pdf doi:10.1029/2011GL050798 https://archimer.ifremer.fr/doc/00074/18499/ 2012 AGU info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess restricted use Geophysical Research Letters (0094-8276) (Amer Geophysical Union), 2012-03 , Vol. 39 , N. L05604 , P. 6 pp. text Publication info:eu-repo/semantics/article 2012 ftarchimer https://doi.org/10.1029/2011GL050798 2021-09-23T20:20:34Z The North Atlantic temperature and salinity distributions are strongly influenced by the existence of Mediterranean eddies (meddies) which significantly contribute to the transport of the warm and salty Mediterranean Water along different pathways. The most common pathways are observed to be North and West of the Canary Current. However, a 2011 seismic reflection cruise conducted by BGR and Ifremer near the North-Western African margin of Morocco, MIRROR Leg 2, revealed the presence of a meddy south of the Azores front and very close to the Morocco coastline. This unusual location of a strong Mediterranean Water anomaly is confirmed by other data. Moreover, meddies are long-lived structures whose dynamics and dissipation are not yet completely understood. Recently, theoretical studies have revealed critical-level baroclinic instabilities of compact, lens-like vortices. This theory supports the slow growth of azimuthal eigenmodes along critical surfaces which leads to the formation of arms winding around the vortex developing sharp internal fronts. These structures are very thin and spatially intermittent and are identified for the first time in a seismic dataset; this is made possible by the length of seismic sections at high lateral resolution. Citation: Menesguen, C., B. L. Hua, X. Carton, F. Klingelhoefer, P. Schnurle, and C. Reichert (2012), Arms winding around a meddy seen in seismic reflection data close to the Morocco coastline, Geophys. Res. Lett., 39, L05604, doi:10.1029/2011GL050798. Article in Journal/Newspaper North Atlantic Archimer (Archive Institutionnelle de l'Ifremer - Institut français de recherche pour l'exploitation de la mer) Geophysical Research Letters 39 5 n/a n/a |
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Open Polar |
collection |
Archimer (Archive Institutionnelle de l'Ifremer - Institut français de recherche pour l'exploitation de la mer) |
op_collection_id |
ftarchimer |
language |
English |
description |
The North Atlantic temperature and salinity distributions are strongly influenced by the existence of Mediterranean eddies (meddies) which significantly contribute to the transport of the warm and salty Mediterranean Water along different pathways. The most common pathways are observed to be North and West of the Canary Current. However, a 2011 seismic reflection cruise conducted by BGR and Ifremer near the North-Western African margin of Morocco, MIRROR Leg 2, revealed the presence of a meddy south of the Azores front and very close to the Morocco coastline. This unusual location of a strong Mediterranean Water anomaly is confirmed by other data. Moreover, meddies are long-lived structures whose dynamics and dissipation are not yet completely understood. Recently, theoretical studies have revealed critical-level baroclinic instabilities of compact, lens-like vortices. This theory supports the slow growth of azimuthal eigenmodes along critical surfaces which leads to the formation of arms winding around the vortex developing sharp internal fronts. These structures are very thin and spatially intermittent and are identified for the first time in a seismic dataset; this is made possible by the length of seismic sections at high lateral resolution. Citation: Menesguen, C., B. L. Hua, X. Carton, F. Klingelhoefer, P. Schnurle, and C. Reichert (2012), Arms winding around a meddy seen in seismic reflection data close to the Morocco coastline, Geophys. Res. Lett., 39, L05604, doi:10.1029/2011GL050798. |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Menesguen, Claire Hua, Bach-lien Carton, Xavier Klingelhoefer, Frauke Schnurle, Philippe Reichert, C. |
spellingShingle |
Menesguen, Claire Hua, Bach-lien Carton, Xavier Klingelhoefer, Frauke Schnurle, Philippe Reichert, C. Arms winding around a meddy seen in seismic reflection data close to the Morocco coastline |
author_facet |
Menesguen, Claire Hua, Bach-lien Carton, Xavier Klingelhoefer, Frauke Schnurle, Philippe Reichert, C. |
author_sort |
Menesguen, Claire |
title |
Arms winding around a meddy seen in seismic reflection data close to the Morocco coastline |
title_short |
Arms winding around a meddy seen in seismic reflection data close to the Morocco coastline |
title_full |
Arms winding around a meddy seen in seismic reflection data close to the Morocco coastline |
title_fullStr |
Arms winding around a meddy seen in seismic reflection data close to the Morocco coastline |
title_full_unstemmed |
Arms winding around a meddy seen in seismic reflection data close to the Morocco coastline |
title_sort |
arms winding around a meddy seen in seismic reflection data close to the morocco coastline |
publisher |
Amer Geophysical Union |
publishDate |
2012 |
url |
https://archimer.ifremer.fr/doc/00074/18499/16046.pdf https://doi.org/10.1029/2011GL050798 https://archimer.ifremer.fr/doc/00074/18499/ |
genre |
North Atlantic |
genre_facet |
North Atlantic |
op_source |
Geophysical Research Letters (0094-8276) (Amer Geophysical Union), 2012-03 , Vol. 39 , N. L05604 , P. 6 pp. |
op_relation |
https://archimer.ifremer.fr/doc/00074/18499/16046.pdf doi:10.1029/2011GL050798 https://archimer.ifremer.fr/doc/00074/18499/ |
op_rights |
2012 AGU info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess restricted use |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.1029/2011GL050798 |
container_title |
Geophysical Research Letters |
container_volume |
39 |
container_issue |
5 |
container_start_page |
n/a |
op_container_end_page |
n/a |
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1766132831755436032 |