Multiplatform observation of cyclonic eddies during the REEBUS experiment
- 1GEOMAR Helmholtz Centre for Ocean Research Kiel, Physical Oceanography, Kiel, Germany (tfischer@geomar.de)
- 2LEGOS (Laboratoire d’Etudes en Géophysique et Océanographie Spatiales), Université de Toulouse, IRD, CNES, CNRS, UPS, Toulouse, France
During the collaborative project "Role of Eddies in the Carbon Pump of Eastern Boundary
Upwelling Systems" (REEBUS), that took place in the eastern tropical North Atlantic in 2019,
three cyclonic mesoscale eddies were intensely surveyed by ship and autonomous systems. The
three eddies were located at different distances to the coast, the most intense of them
(vorticity about 0.5 times f) was found in lee of the Cabo Verdian island of Fogo. Here we
present the reconstruction of the 3-D structure for the three eddies from ship ADCP and
hydrographic sections. Divergence estimates suggest the existence of a downwelling cell in the
center of all three eddies. This cell extends from below the thermocline down to some hundred
meters, at a diameter of about 10 nautical miles. Surface signatures of the eddies indicate
elliptic and oscillating behavior which is further investigated using the interior ocean data.
In this work we also explore the limitations of section-based ocean mesoscale eddy
reconstructions.
How to cite: Fischer, T., Karstensen, J., Dengler, M., and Bendinger, A.: Multiplatform observation of cyclonic eddies during the REEBUS experiment, EGU General Assembly 2021, online, 19–30 Apr 2021, EGU21-6537, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu21-6537, 2021.
