| Summary: | EGU General Assembly 2019 Mesoscale eddies are ubiquitous in the global ocean and make up a substantial fraction of the oceanic kinetic energy. Eddies extract their energy from the general circulation via baroclinic and barotropic instabilities, and some portion of this energy ultimately cascades to small-scale turbulence and dissipation. However, the mechanisms that drive this energy cascade from the mesoscale eddy field towards turbulent dissipation remain unclear. In all ocean basins, satellite altimetry shows that mesoscale eddies drift westward until they encounter the western boundary, where they disappear from the satellite altimetric signal. This indicates that western boundaries are a prime region for mesoscale energy dissipation. Using ship, mooring and glider-borne measurements, the MerMEED project seeks to determine the mechanisms of mesoscale energy dissipation in the western boundary of the subtropical North Atlantic. Here, we present results from a 4-month glider survey between November 2017 and March 2018, within 300 km of the shelf break at -26ºN Peer reviewed
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