Anticyclonic Eddies Over the Northwestern Continental Slope in the Black Sea and Transport of Chlorophyll-Rich Waters Into Its Abyssal Basin

Observations of Black Sea mesoscale eddies and associated horizontal mixing

“…This means that the maximum orbital velocity in A1 was located not at the surface, but just below the seasonal thermocline near 30-m depth (Figure 11a). Such a lens-like structure is rather typical of Black Sea anticyclonic eddies Sur and Ilyin, 1997;Ginzburg et al, 2000b2002a. Because of the reduced thickness of the upper layer the most rapid cooling and thermocline erosion is observed in the central parts of such eddies in autumn ( Figure 11c).…”

“…[49] It should be mentioned that open sea anticyclonic mesoscale eddies can exist not only in the eastern half of the sea, but in the western one as well, as it was observed in the autumn of 1999 both with satellite and drifter data. As distinct from anticyclones that are usually formed west of Crimea and move southwesterly over the wide and relatively gentle continental slope in the general direction of the Rim Current [Ovchinnikov and Titov, 1990;Ovchinnikov et al, 1993;Sur and Ilyin, 1997;Ginzburg et al, 2000bGinzburg et al, , 2002a, the observed western open sea anticyclones came from the eastern Crimea region, having propagated over the sharp continental slope around southern Crimea and separated from the coast near the Crimea southern extremity (A7 in Figure 14). Further observations are needed to study their evolution in the western basin.…”

“…These images often demonstrate the high mesoscale eddy variability in the whole Black Sea area, including the Rim Current that is probably the most energetic source of the variability. Satellite data [Kaz'min and Sklyarov, 1982;Fedorov and Ginsburg, 1992;Grishin et al, 1990;Oguz et al, 1992;Oguz and Besiktepe, 1999;Ginzburg, 1994Ginzburg, , 1995Sur et al, 1994Sur et al, , 1996Sur and Ilyin, 1997;Ginzburg et al, 1998Ginzburg et al, , 2000aGinzburg et al, , 2000bGinzburg et al, , 2000cGinzburg et al, , 2000dGinzburg et al, , 2001aGinzburg et al, , 2002aArashkevich et al, 2002a;Chasovnikov et al, 2002;Zatsepin et al, 2002a] show that circulation in the Black Sea surface layer and associated physical, chemical, and biological processes are considerably more complicated than might be expected from the traditional hydrographic data sets or from the results of numerical modeling although there is a considerable progress in the Black Sea eddy resolving models [Ibraev et al, 2000;Staneva et al, 2001]. The concentration of various admixtures and supply of nutrients in the surface layer are controlled by mesoscale eddy structures (vortices, vortex dipoles, and associated eddies), filaments, and jets that carry out the exchange between the shelf region and central part of the sea (Figure 1b).…”

Analysis of velocity field in the eastern Black Sea from satellite data during the Black Sea '99 experiment

“…The Rim Current, on the other hand, is not always evident on the satellite images, and closely packed vortical structures usually fill the zone attributed to the Rim Current [e.g., Ginzburg et al , 1996, 1997, 1998a, 1998b, 1998c, 2000a, 2000b, 2000c, 2000d]. A movie based on satellite images, however, shows a continuous integrated transport of water directed cyclonically along the coast.…”

“…Satellite imagery, which has been used to investigate the Black Sea surface circulation since 1981 [see Kazmin and Sklyarov , 1982], has made possible the detection of the various nonstationary mesoscale dynamical features (see, e.g., Figure 1) that contribute to this exchange. The observed mesoscale eddy variability is presented by meanders, anticyclonic and cyclonic vortices, pinched off eddies, vortex dipoles, filaments and jets [ Kazmin and Sklyarov , 1982; Grishin et al , 1990; Grishin and Subbotin , 1992; Grishin , 1993; Ginzburg , 1994, 1995; Sur et al , 1994, 1996; Sur and Ilyin , 1997; Ginzburg et al , 1996, 1997, 1998a, 1998b, 1998c, 2000a, 2000b, 2000c, 2000d].…”