Lagrangian circulation of the North Atlantic Central Water over the abyssal plain and continental slopes of the Bay of Biscay: description of selected mesoscale features.
Between 1994 and 2001, several experiments (ARCANE, SEFOS, INTERAFOS) were conducted to directly measure the general and mesoscale Lagrangian circulations over the Bay of Biscay abyssal plain and slopes. Two levels (~100 m and ~450 m) were selected to cover the North Atlantic Central Water range. Tw...
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ftsorbonneuniv:oai:HAL:hal-00308766v1 2023-12-17T10:46:29+01:00 Lagrangian circulation of the North Atlantic Central Water over the abyssal plain and continental slopes of the Bay of Biscay: description of selected mesoscale features. Serpette, Alain Le Cann, Bernard Colas, François Centre Militaire d'Océanographie EPSHOM Laboratoire de physique des océans (LPO) Institut de Recherche pour le Développement (IRD)-Institut Français de Recherche pour l'Exploitation de la Mer (IFREMER)-Université de Brest (UBO)-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS) 2006-06 https://hal.science/hal-00308766 en eng HAL CCSD Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas hal-00308766 https://hal.science/hal-00308766 ISSN: 0214-8358 Scientia Marina https://hal.science/hal-00308766 Scientia Marina, 2006, 70S1, pp.27-42 Bay of Biscay Lagrangian floats and surface drifters slope current mesoscale eddies slope ocean exchanges [SDU.STU.OC]Sciences of the Universe [physics]/Earth Sciences/Oceanography info:eu-repo/semantics/article Journal articles 2006 ftsorbonneuniv 2023-11-21T23:48:09Z Between 1994 and 2001, several experiments (ARCANE, SEFOS, INTERAFOS) were conducted to directly measure the general and mesoscale Lagrangian circulations over the Bay of Biscay abyssal plain and slopes. Two levels (~100 m and ~450 m) were selected to cover the North Atlantic Central Water range. Two types of Lagrangian instruments, drogued surface drifters tracked by satellite (Surdrift) and acoustically tracked subsurface floats (Rafos and Marvor), were used. Overall, more than 36 instrument-years were collected in the Bay of Biscay region (43-49°N, 01-12°W). The weak general circulation in the Bay of Biscay is seen to be highly influenced by the occurrence of several mesoscale coherent features, notably slope currents and eddies, and these affect the exchanges between the abyssal plain and the slopes. The objective of this paper is to depict some specific examples of the observed mesoscale field. Selected float trajectories are shown and used to discuss observations of slope currents and of both anticyclonic and cyclonic eddies. Slope currents exhibit alternation of poleward and equatorward directions, depending on both the period and the geographic area considered. Although the generation process of mesoscale eddies is difficult to observe unambiguously from Lagrangian instruments, eddies are nevertheless ubiquitous over the abyssal plain. Some characteristics of the observed cyclonic and anticyclonic eddies are presented. Smaller anticyclones, localised over the outer shelf and interpreted in terms of ajustment of slope water intrusions, are also depicted. Article in Journal/Newspaper North Atlantic HAL Sorbonne Université |
institution |
Open Polar |
collection |
HAL Sorbonne Université |
op_collection_id |
ftsorbonneuniv |
language |
English |
topic |
Bay of Biscay Lagrangian floats and surface drifters slope current mesoscale eddies slope ocean exchanges [SDU.STU.OC]Sciences of the Universe [physics]/Earth Sciences/Oceanography |
spellingShingle |
Bay of Biscay Lagrangian floats and surface drifters slope current mesoscale eddies slope ocean exchanges [SDU.STU.OC]Sciences of the Universe [physics]/Earth Sciences/Oceanography Serpette, Alain Le Cann, Bernard Colas, François Lagrangian circulation of the North Atlantic Central Water over the abyssal plain and continental slopes of the Bay of Biscay: description of selected mesoscale features. |
topic_facet |
Bay of Biscay Lagrangian floats and surface drifters slope current mesoscale eddies slope ocean exchanges [SDU.STU.OC]Sciences of the Universe [physics]/Earth Sciences/Oceanography |
description |
Between 1994 and 2001, several experiments (ARCANE, SEFOS, INTERAFOS) were conducted to directly measure the general and mesoscale Lagrangian circulations over the Bay of Biscay abyssal plain and slopes. Two levels (~100 m and ~450 m) were selected to cover the North Atlantic Central Water range. Two types of Lagrangian instruments, drogued surface drifters tracked by satellite (Surdrift) and acoustically tracked subsurface floats (Rafos and Marvor), were used. Overall, more than 36 instrument-years were collected in the Bay of Biscay region (43-49°N, 01-12°W). The weak general circulation in the Bay of Biscay is seen to be highly influenced by the occurrence of several mesoscale coherent features, notably slope currents and eddies, and these affect the exchanges between the abyssal plain and the slopes. The objective of this paper is to depict some specific examples of the observed mesoscale field. Selected float trajectories are shown and used to discuss observations of slope currents and of both anticyclonic and cyclonic eddies. Slope currents exhibit alternation of poleward and equatorward directions, depending on both the period and the geographic area considered. Although the generation process of mesoscale eddies is difficult to observe unambiguously from Lagrangian instruments, eddies are nevertheless ubiquitous over the abyssal plain. Some characteristics of the observed cyclonic and anticyclonic eddies are presented. Smaller anticyclones, localised over the outer shelf and interpreted in terms of ajustment of slope water intrusions, are also depicted. |
author2 |
Centre Militaire d'Océanographie EPSHOM Laboratoire de physique des océans (LPO) Institut de Recherche pour le Développement (IRD)-Institut Français de Recherche pour l'Exploitation de la Mer (IFREMER)-Université de Brest (UBO)-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS) |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Serpette, Alain Le Cann, Bernard Colas, François |
author_facet |
Serpette, Alain Le Cann, Bernard Colas, François |
author_sort |
Serpette, Alain |
title |
Lagrangian circulation of the North Atlantic Central Water over the abyssal plain and continental slopes of the Bay of Biscay: description of selected mesoscale features. |
title_short |
Lagrangian circulation of the North Atlantic Central Water over the abyssal plain and continental slopes of the Bay of Biscay: description of selected mesoscale features. |
title_full |
Lagrangian circulation of the North Atlantic Central Water over the abyssal plain and continental slopes of the Bay of Biscay: description of selected mesoscale features. |
title_fullStr |
Lagrangian circulation of the North Atlantic Central Water over the abyssal plain and continental slopes of the Bay of Biscay: description of selected mesoscale features. |
title_full_unstemmed |
Lagrangian circulation of the North Atlantic Central Water over the abyssal plain and continental slopes of the Bay of Biscay: description of selected mesoscale features. |
title_sort |
lagrangian circulation of the north atlantic central water over the abyssal plain and continental slopes of the bay of biscay: description of selected mesoscale features. |
publisher |
HAL CCSD |
publishDate |
2006 |
url |
https://hal.science/hal-00308766 |
genre |
North Atlantic |
genre_facet |
North Atlantic |
op_source |
ISSN: 0214-8358 Scientia Marina https://hal.science/hal-00308766 Scientia Marina, 2006, 70S1, pp.27-42 |
op_relation |
hal-00308766 https://hal.science/hal-00308766 |
_version_ |
1785569987693379584 |