The history and decay of a Mediterranean salt lens
摘要:
Subsurface coherent vortices called Meddies 1 are formed by the outflow of salty water from the Mediterranean Sea 1,2 into the North Atlantic. In October 1984 we began a study to observe the life history and large-scale changes of a Meddy by identifying a specific Meddy and carefully mapping it and seeding it with Sofar floats 3 . (These neutrally buoyant floats are tracked acoustically and can be located aboard ship.) As this Meddy moved southward across the Madeira Abyssal plain, it was resurveyed three more times during a span of two years. Being able to find this same lens (100km in diameter) on successive surveys was itself a unique achievement that allowed us to observe the Meddy evolution and to gain new insight into the importance of different mixing mechanisms that cause Meddy decay. We find evidence of mixing by at least three processes: (1) lateral mixing by the exchange of layers of water ('thermohaline intrusions') 4,5 , (2) vertical mixing at the underside of the lens by salt fingers 6 and (3) mixing by turbulence. Together these cause the net heat and salt anomalies to decay with an e-folding time of about one year. Despite the mixing, the relative vorticity at the core remained constant for the first year and the Meddy retained its coherent shape over a two-year period.
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关键词:
Experimental/ oceanography vortices/ salt tongue subsurface coherent vortices AD 1984 10 to 1986 10 decay Mediterranean salt lens Meddies outflow salty water North Atlantic large-scale changes Meddy Sofar floats evolution mixing mechanisms/ A9210F Dynamics of the upper ocean A9210L Turbulence, diffusion, mixing, and convection in the oceans A9210M Thermohaline structure and circulation of the oceans A9330M Atlantic Ocean
DOI:
10.1038/333649a0
被引量:
年份:
1988
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