Lagrangian eddy tracking reveals the Eratosthenes anticyclonicattractor in the eastern Levantine basin

Statistics of anticyclone activity and trajectories in the southeastern Mediterranean sea over the period 2000-2018
is created using the DYNED atlas, which links the automated mesoscale eddy detection by the AMEDA algorithm with in
situ oceanographic observations. This easternmost region of the Mediterranean sea, delimited by the Levantine coast and
Cyprus, has a complex eddying activity, which has not yet been fully characterized. Using Lagrangian tracking
to investigate the eddy fluxes and interactions between different subregions in this area, we find that the southeastern Levantine
area is isolated, with no anticyclone exchanges with the western part of the basin. Moreover the anticyclonic structure above
the Eratosthenes seamount is identified as being an anticyclone attractor, differentiated from other anticyclones and staying
around this preferred position up to four years with successive mergings. Colocalized in situ profiles inside eddies provide
quantitative information on their subsurface structure and show that similar surface signatures correspond to very different
physical properties. Despite interannual variability, the so-called "Eratosthenes attractor" stores a larger amount of heat and
salt than neighboring anticyclones, in a deeper subsurface anomaly that usually extend down to 500 m. This suggests that this
attractor could concentrate heat and salt from this sub-basin, which will impact the properties of intermediate water masses
created there.