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Subsurface Fine-Scale Patterns in an Anticyclonic Eddy Off Cap-Vert Peninsula Observed From Glider Measurements

Nicolas Kolodziejczyk 1 Pierre Testor 2 Alban Lazar 3 Vincent Echevin 4 Gerd Krahmann 5 Alexis Chaigneau 6 Claire Gourcuff Malick Wade 7 Saliou Faye 8 Philippe Estrade 9 Xavier Capet 4 Laurent Mortier 2 Patrice Brehmer 10 Florian Schütte 5 Johannes Karstensen 11
1 LOPS - Laboratoire d'Océanographie Physique et Spatiale
2 VOG - Variabilité de l'Océan et de la Glace de mer
LOCEAN - Laboratoire d'Océanographie et du Climat : Expérimentations et Approches Numériques
3 VARCLIM - Océan et variabilité du climat
LOCEAN - Laboratoire d'Océanographie et du Climat : Expérimentations et Approches Numériques
4 PROTEO - Processus et interactions de fine échelle océanique
LOCEAN - Laboratoire d'Océanographie et du Climat : Expérimentations et Approches Numériques
5 GEOMAR - Helmholtz Centre for Ocean Research [Kiel]
6 LEGOS - Laboratoire d'études en Géophysique et océanographie spatiales
7 UGB - Université Gaston Berger de Saint-Louis Sénégal
8 ISRA - Institut Sénégalais de Recherches Agricoles [Dakar]
9 LPAO-SF - Laboratoire de Physique de l'Atmosphère et de l'Océan Siméon Fongang
10 IRD - Institut de Recherche pour le Développement
11 IFM-GEOMAR - Leibniz-Institut für Meereswissenschaften
Abstract : Glider measurements acquired along four transects between Cap-Vert Peninsula and the Cape Verde archipelago in the eastern tropical North Atlantic during March-April 2014 were used to investigate fine-scale stirring in an anticyclonic eddy. The anticyclone was formed near 12°N off the continental shelf and propagated northwest toward the Cape Verde islands. At depth, between 100 and -400 m, the isolated anticyclone core contained relatively oxygenated, low-salinity South Atlantic Central Water, while the surrounding water masses were saltier and poorly oxygenated. The dynamical and thermohaline subsurface environment favored the generation of fine-scale horizontal and vertical temperature and salinity structures in and around the core of the anticyclone. These features exhibited horizontal scales of O(10-30 km) relatively small with respect to the eddy radius of O(150 km). The vertical scales of O(5-100 m) were associated to density-compensated gradient. Spectra of salinity and oxygen along isopycnals revealed a slope of around k-2 in the 10- to 100-km horizontal scale range. Further analyses suggest that the fine-scale structures are likely related to tracer stirring processes. Such mesoscale anticyclonic eddies and the embedded fine-scale tracers in and around them could play a major role in the transport of South Atlantic Central Water masses and ventilation of the North Atlantic Oxygen Minimum Zone.
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Conference papers
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https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-02401875
Contributor : Françoise Pinsard <>
Submitted on : Tuesday, December 10, 2019 - 11:20:15 AM
Last modification on : Thursday, April 15, 2021 - 3:08:08 PM

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UNIV-BREST | UNIV-TLSE3 | GEOMAR | OMP-LEGOS | INSU | LOPS | TIM-LEGOS | OMP | LOCEAN | SORBONNE-UNIVERSITE | MNHN | CNRS | SU-SCIENCES | IUEM | METEO | PSL | ENS-PARIS | CEA | X | UP-SCIENCES | UVSQ

Citation

Nicolas Kolodziejczyk, Pierre Testor, Alban Lazar, Vincent Echevin, Gerd Krahmann, et al.. Subsurface Fine-Scale Patterns in an Anticyclonic Eddy Off Cap-Vert Peninsula Observed From Glider Measurements. 21st EGU General Assembly, EGU, Apr 2019, Vienna, Austria. ⟨hal-02401875⟩

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