Ocean Velocities as Inferred from Argo Floats: Methodology and Applications

• Main Author: Rosell Fieschi, Miquel
• Other Authors: Pelegrí, Josep Lluís, Gourrion, Jérôme
• Format: Doctoral or Postdoctoral Thesis
• Language: unknown
• Published: Universidad Politécnica de Cataluña 2014
• Subjects: Antarctic; Antarc*
• Online Access: http://hdl.handle.net/10261/101461

Memoria de tesis doctoral presentada por Miquel Rosell Fieschi para optar al grado de Doctor en Ciencias del Mar por la Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya (UPC), realizada bajo la dirección del Dr. Josep Lluís Pelegrí Lloparp del Institut de Ciències del Mar (ICM-CSIC) y del Dr. Jerôme Gourrion.-- 121 pages The present work has been developed in the frame of the MOC2 project (Ocean Climate Memory: fluxes of intermediate waters in the Southern Atlantic and their transformation into surface waters in the equatorial Atlantic, reference number CTM2008-06438), which was carried out between January 2009 and December 2011 with funding from the Ministerio de Educaci´on y Ciencia of the Spanish Government. The project consisted of two subprojects, being the present PhD thesis part of the first subproject: Ocean Climate Memory: mechanisms and paths of surface water formation in the equatorial Atlantic (reference number CTM2008-06438-C02-01). The main objective of this subproject was to study the processes and velocity of incorporation of the Intermediate Waters towards the superficial ocean in the equatorial Atlantic. The project was funded by the Spanish Government, and carried out at the Physical Oceanography Department of the ICM-CSIC (Institut de Ci`encies del Mar de Barcelona). Josep Llu´ıs Pelegr´ı was the project coordinator and PI of the first subproject. He and Jerome Gourrion are the directors of this PhD thesis. The original aim of this PhD thesis was to explore and develop a novel method to study the paths and rates of transformation of Antarctic Intermediate Water (AAIW) in the equatorial Atlantic Ocean by using the information contained in the floats of the Argo program. In particular, the ocean velocities at the sea surface and the parking depth are inferred from the Argo float trajectories; when combined with the salinity and temperature data, this gives information not only on the paths of the water parcels but also on their transformations. During the last years other authors have explored how to ...