On the in#uence of Mediterranean Water on the Central Waters of the North Atlantic Oceanq

Within the Central waters of the North Atlantic Ocean there is a signi"cant east}west di!erence in salinity, similar to that caused by Mediterranean Water at deeper levels. In this paper we hypothesize that the salinity of the Central Water is in#uenced by the saline Mediterranean Out#ow Water,...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: C. Mauritzen, Y. Morel, J. Paillet
Other Authors: The Pennsylvania State University CiteSeerX Archives
Format: Text
Language:English
Subjects:
Mediterranean Out#ow Water
North Atlantic Central Water
Detrainment
Rotating tank experiments
Inversion
Water masses
North Atlantic
Online Access:http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/summary?doi=10.1.1.607.7879
http://met.no/Forskning/Vare_forskere/Cecilie_Mauritzen/filestore/Mauritzen_Morel_Pailletl_DSR2001.pdf
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Summary:Within the Central waters of the North Atlantic Ocean there is a signi"cant east}west di!erence in salinity, similar to that caused by Mediterranean Water at deeper levels. In this paper we hypothesize that the salinity of the Central Water is in#uenced by the saline Mediterranean Out#ow Water, despite physical separation of the two water masses by a salinity minimum over most of the ocean basin. It is suggested that there occurs a cross-isopycnal #ux of salinity from the Mediterranean Out#ow Water towards the low-density Central Water (detrainment) in the eastern Gulf of Cadiz, not far from the Strait of Gibraltar, where the two water masses are in physical contact. Laboratory experiments, inverse modeling and direct current observations

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