Seasonal and interannual variability of Mediterranean Sea overturning circulation
The overturning streamfunction is a widely used metric to monitor ocean circulation changes in the North Atlantic Ocean. Analogously, it is known that an overturning circulation develops in the Mediterranean Sea, although substantially weaker and smaller than in the Atlantic. In this work we use mon...
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ftunivalicante:oai:rua.ua.es:10045/134922 2023-07-02T03:33:06+02:00 Seasonal and interannual variability of Mediterranean Sea overturning circulation Sayol, Juan Manuel Marcos, Marta Garcia-Garcia, David Vigo, Isabel Universidad de Alicante. Departamento de Matemática Aplicada Geodesia por Satélites para la Observación de la Tierra y el Cambio Climático / Satellite Geodesy for Earth Observation and Climate Studies (SG) 2023-06-05 http://hdl.handle.net/10045/134922 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.dsr.2023.104081 eng eng Elsevier https://doi.org/10.1016/j.dsr.2023.104081 info:eu-repo/grantAgreement/AEI/Plan Estatal de Investigación Científica y Técnica y de Innovación 2017-2020/PID2021-122142OB-I00 Deep Sea Research Part I: Oceanographic Research Papers. 2023. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.dsr.2023.104081 0967-0637 (Print) 1879-0119 (Online) http://hdl.handle.net/10045/134922 doi:10.1016/j.dsr.2023.104081 © 2023 The Author(s). Published by Elsevier Ltd. This is an open access article under the CC BY license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess Mediterranean sea Overturning circulation Deep convection Water mass transformation Seasonality Interannual variability info:eu-repo/semantics/article 2023 ftunivalicante https://doi.org/10.1016/j.dsr.2023.104081 2023-06-13T23:22:04Z The overturning streamfunction is a widely used metric to monitor ocean circulation changes in the North Atlantic Ocean. Analogously, it is known that an overturning circulation develops in the Mediterranean Sea, although substantially weaker and smaller than in the Atlantic. In this work we use monthly mean fields from a high-resolution ocean reanalysis (1/16◦ × 1/16◦) to explore seasonal and interannual variability of Mediterranean Sea overturning circulation in depth and water mass parameter spaces (potential density, potential temperature, salinity) from 1987 to 2018 (both included). Results show a clear single zonal clockwise transport cell in all three spaces that extends from the Strait of Gibraltar to the Levantine Basin, in which water masses tend to densify as they move eastward. This densification is mainly controlled by salinity in the Eastern Mediterranean basin (EMED), while in the Western Mediterranean (WMED) both salinity and potential temperature variations should be taken into account. In contrast, the meridional overturning transport, much more complex, is able to better capture smaller-scale variations since it responds faster to perturbations in the circulation. Seasonal variations in overturning transport are reflected in the size and strength of overturning cells in all spaces, being cells remarkably narrower in winter than in summer. Regarding interannual changes, we show that the meridional overturning transport in density space is significantly correlated with the North Atlantic Oscillation, the Mediterranean Oscillation Index and the Scandinavian pattern during wintertime in the WMED, and with the Eastern Atlantic and the East Atlantic-Western Russian in the EMED. The overturning metric in density space captures well the Eastern Mediterranean Transient, that occurred during years 1992–1996. Finally, we explore the usefulness of overturning metric to detect and track water mass changes associated to shorter scale events, using as example the strong deep convection events of years ... Article in Journal/Newspaper North Atlantic North Atlantic oscillation RUA - Repositorio Institucional de la Universidad de Alicante Deep Sea Research Part I: Oceanographic Research Papers 198 104081 |
institution |
Open Polar |
collection |
RUA - Repositorio Institucional de la Universidad de Alicante |
op_collection_id |
ftunivalicante |
language |
English |
topic |
Mediterranean sea Overturning circulation Deep convection Water mass transformation Seasonality Interannual variability |
spellingShingle |
Mediterranean sea Overturning circulation Deep convection Water mass transformation Seasonality Interannual variability Sayol, Juan Manuel Marcos, Marta Garcia-Garcia, David Vigo, Isabel Seasonal and interannual variability of Mediterranean Sea overturning circulation |
topic_facet |
Mediterranean sea Overturning circulation Deep convection Water mass transformation Seasonality Interannual variability |
description |
The overturning streamfunction is a widely used metric to monitor ocean circulation changes in the North Atlantic Ocean. Analogously, it is known that an overturning circulation develops in the Mediterranean Sea, although substantially weaker and smaller than in the Atlantic. In this work we use monthly mean fields from a high-resolution ocean reanalysis (1/16◦ × 1/16◦) to explore seasonal and interannual variability of Mediterranean Sea overturning circulation in depth and water mass parameter spaces (potential density, potential temperature, salinity) from 1987 to 2018 (both included). Results show a clear single zonal clockwise transport cell in all three spaces that extends from the Strait of Gibraltar to the Levantine Basin, in which water masses tend to densify as they move eastward. This densification is mainly controlled by salinity in the Eastern Mediterranean basin (EMED), while in the Western Mediterranean (WMED) both salinity and potential temperature variations should be taken into account. In contrast, the meridional overturning transport, much more complex, is able to better capture smaller-scale variations since it responds faster to perturbations in the circulation. Seasonal variations in overturning transport are reflected in the size and strength of overturning cells in all spaces, being cells remarkably narrower in winter than in summer. Regarding interannual changes, we show that the meridional overturning transport in density space is significantly correlated with the North Atlantic Oscillation, the Mediterranean Oscillation Index and the Scandinavian pattern during wintertime in the WMED, and with the Eastern Atlantic and the East Atlantic-Western Russian in the EMED. The overturning metric in density space captures well the Eastern Mediterranean Transient, that occurred during years 1992–1996. Finally, we explore the usefulness of overturning metric to detect and track water mass changes associated to shorter scale events, using as example the strong deep convection events of years ... |
author2 |
Universidad de Alicante. Departamento de Matemática Aplicada Geodesia por Satélites para la Observación de la Tierra y el Cambio Climático / Satellite Geodesy for Earth Observation and Climate Studies (SG) |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Sayol, Juan Manuel Marcos, Marta Garcia-Garcia, David Vigo, Isabel |
author_facet |
Sayol, Juan Manuel Marcos, Marta Garcia-Garcia, David Vigo, Isabel |
author_sort |
Sayol, Juan Manuel |
title |
Seasonal and interannual variability of Mediterranean Sea overturning circulation |
title_short |
Seasonal and interannual variability of Mediterranean Sea overturning circulation |
title_full |
Seasonal and interannual variability of Mediterranean Sea overturning circulation |
title_fullStr |
Seasonal and interannual variability of Mediterranean Sea overturning circulation |
title_full_unstemmed |
Seasonal and interannual variability of Mediterranean Sea overturning circulation |
title_sort |
seasonal and interannual variability of mediterranean sea overturning circulation |
publisher |
Elsevier |
publishDate |
2023 |
url |
http://hdl.handle.net/10045/134922 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.dsr.2023.104081 |
genre |
North Atlantic North Atlantic oscillation |
genre_facet |
North Atlantic North Atlantic oscillation |
op_relation |
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.dsr.2023.104081 info:eu-repo/grantAgreement/AEI/Plan Estatal de Investigación Científica y Técnica y de Innovación 2017-2020/PID2021-122142OB-I00 Deep Sea Research Part I: Oceanographic Research Papers. 2023. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.dsr.2023.104081 0967-0637 (Print) 1879-0119 (Online) http://hdl.handle.net/10045/134922 doi:10.1016/j.dsr.2023.104081 |
op_rights |
© 2023 The Author(s). Published by Elsevier Ltd. This is an open access article under the CC BY license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.dsr.2023.104081 |
container_title |
Deep Sea Research Part I: Oceanographic Research Papers |
container_volume |
198 |
container_start_page |
104081 |
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