Observations of an intense anticyclonic warm eddy in the Newfoundland Basin
Résumé
An intense anticyclonic warm eddy was sampled in February 1997 in the Newfoundland Basin. Its presence, detected during a hydrographic survey, was further corroborated through ERS/TOPEX sea surface height anomaly and satellite tracked drifters. This 120 km wide eddy was very homogeneous in temperature and salinity down to 800 m and its transport (15-1800 dbar) reached 27 Sv. Its location, 49 degreesN 40 degreesW, in the warm and saline waters of the Northwest Corner, the northernmost position reached by the North Atlantic Current, is clearly exceptional. Although intense anticyclonic eddies have previously been observed with satellite tracked buoys and RAFOS floats, this is the first eddy (to our knowledge) ever documented at such a high latitude in the North Atlantic Current system. Its formation is discussed in term of thermohaline processes.
Domaines
Océanographie
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Geophysical Research Letters - 2001 - Caniaux - Observations of an intense anticyclonic warm eddy in the Newfoundland Basin.pdf (444.57 Ko)
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