Observations of an intense anticyclonic warm eddy in the Newfoundland Basin

• Published in: Geophysical Research Letters
• Main Authors: Caniaux, G, Giordani, H, Prieur, L, Hernandez, F
• Other Authors: Laboratoire d'océanographie de Villefranche (LOV), Institut national des sciences de l'Univers (INSU - CNRS)-Sorbonne Université (SU)-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)-Institut de la Mer de Villefranche (IMEV), Sorbonne Université (SU)-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)-Sorbonne Université (SU)-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS), Universidade Federal Fluminense Rio de Janeiro (UFF)
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: HAL CCSD 2001
• Subjects: [SDU.STU.OC]Sciences of the Universe [physics]/Earth Sciences/Oceanography; Newfoundland; north atlantic current; North Atlantic
• Online Access: https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-03483053; https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-03483053/document; https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-03483053/file/Geophysical%20Research%20Letters%20-%202001%20-%20Caniaux%20-%20Observations%20of%20an%20intense%20anticyclonic%20warm%20eddy%20in%20the%20Newfoundland%20Basin.pdf; https://doi.org/10.1029/2001GL012838

International audience An intense anticyclonic warm eddy was sampled in February 1997 in the Newfoundland Basin. Its presence, detected during a hydrographic survey, was further corroborated through ERS/TOPEX sea surface height anomaly and satellite tracked drifters. This 120 km wide eddy was very homogeneous in temperature and salinity down to 800 m and its transport (15-1800 dbar) reached 27 Sv. Its location, 49 degreesN 40 degreesW, in the warm and saline waters of the Northwest Corner, the northernmost position reached by the North Atlantic Current, is clearly exceptional. Although intense anticyclonic eddies have previously been observed with satellite tracked buoys and RAFOS floats, this is the first eddy (to our knowledge) ever documented at such a high latitude in the North Atlantic Current system. Its formation is discussed in term of thermohaline processes.