The continental slope current system between Cape Verde and the Canary Islands
Special volume: Advances in Spanish physical oceanography. Scientia Marina 76(Suppl.1) 2012.-- 14 pages, 10 figures [EN] We use hydrographic, velocity and drifter data from a cruise carried out in November 2008 to describe the continental slope current system in the upper thermocline (down to 600 m)...
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Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas (España)
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Online Access: | http://hdl.handle.net/10261/59508 https://doi.org/10.3989/scimar.03607.18C |
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ftcsic:oai:digital.csic.es:10261/59508 2024-02-11T10:06:50+01:00 The continental slope current system between Cape Verde and the Canary Islands El sistema de corrientes de talud continental entre Cabo Verde y las Islas Canarias Peña-Izquierdo, Jesús Pelegrí, Josep Lluís Pastor, Maria V. Castellanos, Paola Emelianov, Mikhail Gasser, Marc Salvador, Joaquín Vázquez-Domínguez, Evaristo 2012-09 http://hdl.handle.net/10261/59508 https://doi.org/10.3989/scimar.03607.18C en eng Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas (España) https://doi.org/10.3989/scimar.03607.18C Scientia Marina 76(Suppl.1): 65-78 (2012) 0214-8358 http://hdl.handle.net/10261/59508 doi:10.3989/scimar.03607.18C 1886-8134 open Boundary circulation Continental slope Northwest Africa Poleward undercurrent Central water mass Cape Verde frontal system Circulación de frontera Talud continental África noroccidental Corriente subsuperficial hacia el Polo Masa de agua central Sistema frontal de Cabo Verde artículo http://purl.org/coar/resource_type/c_6501 2012 ftcsic https://doi.org/10.3989/scimar.03607.18C 2024-01-16T09:41:54Z Special volume: Advances in Spanish physical oceanography. Scientia Marina 76(Suppl.1) 2012.-- 14 pages, 10 figures [EN] We use hydrographic, velocity and drifter data from a cruise carried out in November 2008 to describe the continental slope current system in the upper thermocline (down to 600 m) between Cape Verde and the Canary Islands. The major feature in the region is the Cape Verde Frontal Zone (CVFZ), separating waters from tropical (southern) and subtropical (northern) origin. The CVFZ is found to intersect the slope north of Cape Blanc, between 22°N and 23°N, but we find that southern waters are predominant over the slope as far north as 24°N. South of Cape Blanc (21.25°N) the Poleward Undercurrent (PUC) is a prominent northward jet (50 km wide), reaching down to 300 m and indistinguishable from the surface Mauritanian Current. North of Cape Blanc the upwelling front is found far offshore, opening a near-slope northward path to the PUC. Nevertheless, the northward PUC transport decreases from 2.8 Sv at 18°N to 1.7 Sv at 24°N, with about 1 Sv recirculating ofshore just south of Cape Blanc, in agreement with the trajectory of subsurface drifters. South of the CVFZ there is an abrupt thermohaline transition at sq=26.85 kg m–3, which indicates the lower limit of the relatively pure (low salt and high oxygen content) South Atlantic Central Water (SACW) variety that coexists with the dominant locally-diluted (salinity increases through mixing with North Atlantic Central Water but oxygen diminishes because of enhanced remineralization) Cape Verde (SACWcv) variety. At 16°N about 70% of the PUC transport corresponds to the SACW variety but but this is transformed into 40% SACWcv at 24°N. However, between Cape Verde and Cape Blanc and in the 26.85<sq<27.1 layer, we measure up to 0.8 Sv of SACWcv being transported south. The results strongly endorse the idea that the slope current system plays a major role in tropical-subtropical water-mass exchange [ES] En este trabajo describimos el sistema de ... Article in Journal/Newspaper North Atlantic Digital.CSIC (Spanish National Research Council) Polo ENVELOPE(28.967,28.967,65.600,65.600) Scientia Marina 76 S1 65 78 |
institution |
Open Polar |
collection |
Digital.CSIC (Spanish National Research Council) |
op_collection_id |
ftcsic |
language |
English |
topic |
Boundary circulation Continental slope Northwest Africa Poleward undercurrent Central water mass Cape Verde frontal system Circulación de frontera Talud continental África noroccidental Corriente subsuperficial hacia el Polo Masa de agua central Sistema frontal de Cabo Verde |
spellingShingle |
Boundary circulation Continental slope Northwest Africa Poleward undercurrent Central water mass Cape Verde frontal system Circulación de frontera Talud continental África noroccidental Corriente subsuperficial hacia el Polo Masa de agua central Sistema frontal de Cabo Verde Peña-Izquierdo, Jesús Pelegrí, Josep Lluís Pastor, Maria V. Castellanos, Paola Emelianov, Mikhail Gasser, Marc Salvador, Joaquín Vázquez-Domínguez, Evaristo The continental slope current system between Cape Verde and the Canary Islands |
topic_facet |
Boundary circulation Continental slope Northwest Africa Poleward undercurrent Central water mass Cape Verde frontal system Circulación de frontera Talud continental África noroccidental Corriente subsuperficial hacia el Polo Masa de agua central Sistema frontal de Cabo Verde |
description |
Special volume: Advances in Spanish physical oceanography. Scientia Marina 76(Suppl.1) 2012.-- 14 pages, 10 figures [EN] We use hydrographic, velocity and drifter data from a cruise carried out in November 2008 to describe the continental slope current system in the upper thermocline (down to 600 m) between Cape Verde and the Canary Islands. The major feature in the region is the Cape Verde Frontal Zone (CVFZ), separating waters from tropical (southern) and subtropical (northern) origin. The CVFZ is found to intersect the slope north of Cape Blanc, between 22°N and 23°N, but we find that southern waters are predominant over the slope as far north as 24°N. South of Cape Blanc (21.25°N) the Poleward Undercurrent (PUC) is a prominent northward jet (50 km wide), reaching down to 300 m and indistinguishable from the surface Mauritanian Current. North of Cape Blanc the upwelling front is found far offshore, opening a near-slope northward path to the PUC. Nevertheless, the northward PUC transport decreases from 2.8 Sv at 18°N to 1.7 Sv at 24°N, with about 1 Sv recirculating ofshore just south of Cape Blanc, in agreement with the trajectory of subsurface drifters. South of the CVFZ there is an abrupt thermohaline transition at sq=26.85 kg m–3, which indicates the lower limit of the relatively pure (low salt and high oxygen content) South Atlantic Central Water (SACW) variety that coexists with the dominant locally-diluted (salinity increases through mixing with North Atlantic Central Water but oxygen diminishes because of enhanced remineralization) Cape Verde (SACWcv) variety. At 16°N about 70% of the PUC transport corresponds to the SACW variety but but this is transformed into 40% SACWcv at 24°N. However, between Cape Verde and Cape Blanc and in the 26.85<sq<27.1 layer, we measure up to 0.8 Sv of SACWcv being transported south. The results strongly endorse the idea that the slope current system plays a major role in tropical-subtropical water-mass exchange [ES] En este trabajo describimos el sistema de ... |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Peña-Izquierdo, Jesús Pelegrí, Josep Lluís Pastor, Maria V. Castellanos, Paola Emelianov, Mikhail Gasser, Marc Salvador, Joaquín Vázquez-Domínguez, Evaristo |
author_facet |
Peña-Izquierdo, Jesús Pelegrí, Josep Lluís Pastor, Maria V. Castellanos, Paola Emelianov, Mikhail Gasser, Marc Salvador, Joaquín Vázquez-Domínguez, Evaristo |
author_sort |
Peña-Izquierdo, Jesús |
title |
The continental slope current system between Cape Verde and the Canary Islands |
title_short |
The continental slope current system between Cape Verde and the Canary Islands |
title_full |
The continental slope current system between Cape Verde and the Canary Islands |
title_fullStr |
The continental slope current system between Cape Verde and the Canary Islands |
title_full_unstemmed |
The continental slope current system between Cape Verde and the Canary Islands |
title_sort |
continental slope current system between cape verde and the canary islands |
publisher |
Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas (España) |
publishDate |
2012 |
url |
http://hdl.handle.net/10261/59508 https://doi.org/10.3989/scimar.03607.18C |
long_lat |
ENVELOPE(28.967,28.967,65.600,65.600) |
geographic |
Polo |
geographic_facet |
Polo |
genre |
North Atlantic |
genre_facet |
North Atlantic |
op_relation |
https://doi.org/10.3989/scimar.03607.18C Scientia Marina 76(Suppl.1): 65-78 (2012) 0214-8358 http://hdl.handle.net/10261/59508 doi:10.3989/scimar.03607.18C 1886-8134 |
op_rights |
open |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.3989/scimar.03607.18C |
container_title |
Scientia Marina |
container_volume |
76 |
container_issue |
S1 |
container_start_page |
65 |
op_container_end_page |
78 |
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1790604831980781568 |