Argo Floats Revealing Bimodality of Large-Scale Mid-Depth Circulation in the North Atlantic

Analysis of Argo float trajectories at 1000 m and temperature at 950 m in the North Atlantic between November 2003 and January 2005 demonstrates the existence of two different circulation modes with fast transition between them. Each mode has a pair of cyclonic-anticyclonic gyres. The difference is...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Chu, Peter C., Lvanov, Leonid M., Melnichenko, Oleg V., Li, Rongfeng
Other Authors: NAVAL POSTGRADUATE SCHOOL MONTEREY CA DEPT OF OCEANOGRAPHY
Format: Text
Language:English
Published: 2008
Subjects:
Physical and Dynamic Oceanography
*OCEAN CURRENTS
*FLOATS
*NORTH ATLANTIC OCEAN
MEDITERRANEAN SEA
TRAJECTORIES
TEMPERATURE
MEASUREMENT
REPRINTS
*ARGO FLOATS
*BIMODALITY
CYCLONIC GYRES
OCEAN CIRCULATION
ANTICYCLONIC GYRES
OSD METHOD
North Atlantic
Online Access:http://www.dtic.mil/docs/citations/ADA482129
http://oai.dtic.mil/oai/oai?&verb=getRecord&metadataPrefix=html&identifier=ADA482129
Description
Summary:Analysis of Argo float trajectories at 1000 m and temperature at 950 m in the North Atlantic between November 2003 and January 2005 demonstrates the existence of two different circulation modes with fast transition between them. Each mode has a pair of cyclonic-anticyclonic gyres. The difference is the location of the cyclonic gyre. The cyclonic gyre stretches from southeast to northwest in the first mode and from the southwest to the northeast in the second mode. The observed modes strongly affect the heat and salt transport in the North Atlantic. In particular, the second mode slows down the westward transport of the warm and saline water from the Mediterranean Sea. Published in Acta Oceanologica Sinica, v27 n2 p1-10, 2008. Sponsored in part by NPS.

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