An extensive western Mediterranean deep water renewal between 2004 and 2006

Schröeder, Katrin; Ribotti, Alberto; Borghini, Mireno; Sorgente, Roberto; Perilli, Angelo; Gasparini, G.P.

doi:10.1029/2008gl035146

Cited by 167 publications

(243 citation statements)

References 24 publications

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“…The system of deep convection in the Gulf of Lions had a particularly intense event observed during winter of 2005 (López-Jurado et al, 2005;Canals et al, 2006;Schroeder et al, 2008) and to a lesser extent during the following years, when the convection occurred over a much larger and deeper area than usual. This intense formation of dense water in the Gulf of Lions has already been simulated by (Beuvier et al, 2012a(Beuvier et al, ) et al (2012a with the model used in this study.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Rather, the next 10 years (ARPERA forcing during 1965(ARPERA forcing during -1974 are continuously repeated until 1975 to drive our offline simulations of both passive tracers from 1951 (beginning of the simulation) until 1975. That forcing period was selected because it does not include intense events like the EMT or the WMT (Schroeder et al, 2008); we thus considered this period as best suited to produce reasonable circulation fields for the Mediterranean Sea (Beuvier et al, , 2012bBeuvier, 2011). Then to complete the offline 3 H-3 He simulations, we applied the NEMO-MED12 circulation fields corresponding to the remaining 1975-2011 period forcing.…”

Section: Description Of the Modelmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Schroeder et al, 2012;Pinardi et al, 2013). The two most recent examples being the EMT (Roether et al, 2007) and the Western Mediterranean Transient (WMT) (Schroeder et al, 2008).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Modelling of the anthropogenic tritium transient and its decay product helium-3 in the Mediterranean Sea using a high-resolution regional model

et al. 2015

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Abstract. This numerical study provides the first simulation of the anthropogenic tritium invasion and its decay product helium-3 ( 3 He) in the Mediterranean Sea. The simulation covers the entire tritium ( 3 H) transient generated by the atmospheric nuclear weapons tests performed in the 1950s and early 1960s and is run till 2011. Tritium, helium-3 and their derived age estimates are particularly suitable for studying intermediate and deep-water ventilation and spreading of water masses at intermediate/deep levels. The simulation is made using a high-resolution regional model NEMO (Nucleus for European Modelling of the Ocean), in a regional configuration for the Mediterranean Sea called MED12, forced at the surface with prescribed tritium evolution derived from observations. The simulation is compared to measurements of tritium and helium-3 performed along large-scale transects in the Mediterranean Sea during the last few decades on cruises of R/V Meteor: M5/6, M31/1, M44/4, M51/2, M84/3, and R/V Poseidon: 234. The results show that the input function used for the tritium generates a realistic distribution of the main hydrographic features of the Mediterranean Sea circulation. In the eastern basin, the results highlight the weak formation of Adriatic Deep Water in the model, which explains its weak contribution to the Eastern Mediterranean Deep Water (EMDW) in the Ionian sub-basin. It produces a realistic representation of the Eastern Mediterranean Transient (EMT) signal, simulating a deep-water formation in the Aegean subbasin at the beginning of 1993, with a realistic timing of deep-water renewal in the eastern basin.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Description Of the Modelmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Modelling of the anthropogenic tritium transient and its decay product helium-3 in the Mediterranean Sea using a high-resolution regional model

et al. 2015

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“…Other studies demonstrated the importance of the good representation of the atmospheric synoptic chronology linked with the so-called weather patterns or weather regimes Papadopoulos et al, 2012;Durrieu de Madron et al, 2013) or with the passage of Mediterranean storms associated with strong airsea exchanges (Herrmann and Somot, 2008;Herrmann et al, 2010). At a longer timescale, interannual to decadal variability of the atmospheric forcings (water or heat fluxes) is known to dominate the climate variability of the deep water mass formation in both basins of the Mediterranean Sea Herrmann et al, 2010;L'Heveder et al, 2013), leading sometimes to exceptional decadal events such as the Eastern Mediterranean Transient (Roether et al, 2007) or the Western Mediterranean Transition (Schroeder et al, 2008).…”

Section: Hamon Et Al: Design and Validation Of Medrys A 1992-201mentioning

confidence: 99%

Design and validation of MEDRYS, a Mediterranean Sea reanalysis over the period 1992–2013

Hamon

Beuvier

Somot³

et al. 2016

Ocean Sci.

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Abstract. The French research community in the Mediterranean Sea modeling and the French operational ocean forecasting center Mercator Océan have gathered their skill and expertise in physical oceanography, ocean modeling, atmospheric forcings and data assimilation to carry out a MEDiterranean sea ReanalYsiS (MEDRYS) at high resolution for the period 1992-2013. The ocean model used is NEMOMED12, a Mediterranean configuration of NEMO with a 1/12 • (∼ 7 km) horizontal resolution and 75 vertical z levels with partial steps. At the surface, it is forced by a new atmospheric-forcing data set (ALDERA), coming from a dynamical downscaling of the ERA-Interim atmospheric reanalysis by the regional climate model ALADIN-Climate with a 12 km horizontal and 3 h temporal resolutions. This configuration is used to carry a 34-year hindcast simulation over the period 1979, which is the initial state of the reanalysis in October 1992. MEDRYS uses the existing Mercator Océan data assimilation system SAM2 that is based on a reduced-order Kalman filter with a threedimensional (3-D) multivariate modal decomposition of the forecast error. Altimeter data, satellite sea surface temperature (SST) and temperature and salinity vertical profiles are jointly assimilated. This paper describes the configuration we used to perform MEDRYS. We then validate the skills of the data assimilation system. It is shown that the data assimilation restores a good average temperature and salinity at intermediate layers compared to the hindcast. No particular biases are identified in the bottom layers. However, the reanalysis shows slight positive biases of 0.02 psu and 0.15 • C above 150 m depth. In the validation stage, it is also shown that the assimilation allows one to better reproduce water, heat and salt transports through the Strait of Gibraltar. Finally, the ability of the reanalysis to represent the sea surface high-frequency variability is shown.

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“…The observed massive dense water input from the Aegean Sea and Sea of Crete in the early 1990s is known as the Eastern Mediterranean Transient (EMT) event (Roether et al, 1996;Klein et al, 1999;Lascaratos et al, 1999). The extensive deep water formation in the western Mediterranean Sea (WMed) between 2004 and 2006, known as the Western Mediterranean Transition (WMT) event (Schroeder et al, 2008(Schroeder et al, , 2010, is thought to have been triggered by the EMT event . Nevertheless, both events are part of a general circulation pattern which can be observed in the Mediterranean Sea.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Ventilation of the Mediterranean Sea constrained by multiple transient tracer measurements

Stöven

Tanhua

2014

Ocean Sci.

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Abstract. Ventilation is the primary pathway for atmosphere-ocean boundary perturbations, such as temperature anomalies, to be relayed to the ocean interior. It is also a conduit for gas exchange between the interface of atmosphere and ocean. Thus it is a mechanism whereby, for instance, the ocean interior is oxygenated and enriched in anthropogenic carbon. The ventilation of the Mediterranean Sea is fast in comparison to the world ocean and has large temporal variability. Here we present transient tracer data from a field campaign in April 2011 that sampled a unique suite of transient tracers (SF 6 , 3 H and 3 He) in all major basins of the Mediterranean. We apply the transit time distribution (TTD) model to the data in order to constrain the mean age, the ratio of the advective / diffusive transport and the number of water masses significant for ventilation.We found that the eastern part of the eastern Mediterranean can be reasonably described with a one-dimensional inverse Gaussian TTD (IG-TTD), and thus constrained with two independent tracers. The ventilation of the Ionian Sea and the western Mediterranean can only be constrained by a linear combination of IG-TTDs. We approximate the ventilation with a one-dimensional, two inverse Gaussian TTD (2IG-TTD) for these areas and demonstrate a possibility of constraining a 2IG-TTD from the available transient tracer data. The deep water in the Ionian Sea has a mean age between 120 and 160 years and is therefore substantially older than the mean age of the Levantine Basin deep water (60-80 years). These results are in contrast to those expected by the higher transient tracer concentrations in the Ionian Sea deep water. This is partly due to deep water of Adriatic origin having more diffusive properties in transport and formation (i.e., a high ratio of diffusion over advection), compared to the deep water of Aegean Sea origin that still dominates the deep Levantine Basin deep water after the Eastern Mediterranean Transient (EMT) in the early 1990s. The tracer minimum zone (TMZ) in the intermediate of the Levantine Basin is the oldest water mass with a mean age up to 290 years. We also show that the deep western Mediterranean has contributed approximately 40 % of recently ventilated deep water from the Western Mediterranean Transition (WMT) event of the mid-2000s. The deep water has higher transient tracer concentrations than the mid-depth water, but the mean age is similar with values between 180 and 220 years.

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An extensive western Mediterranean deep water renewal between 2004 and 2006

Cited by 167 publications

References 24 publications

Modelling of the anthropogenic tritium transient and its decay product helium-3 in the Mediterranean Sea using a high-resolution regional model

Modelling of the anthropogenic tritium transient and its decay product helium-3 in the Mediterranean Sea using a high-resolution regional model

Design and validation of MEDRYS, a Mediterranean Sea reanalysis over the period 1992–2013

Ventilation of the Mediterranean Sea constrained by multiple transient tracer measurements

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