Claire Menesguen

Arms winding around a meddy seen in seismic reflection data close to the Morocco coastline

The North Atlantic temperature and salinity distributions are strongly influenced by the existence of Mediterranean eddies (meddies) which significantly contribute to the transport of the warm and salty Mediterranean Water along different pathways. The most common pathways are observed to be North and West of the Canary Current. However, a 2011 seismic reflection cruise conducted by BGR and Ifremer near the North-Western African margin of Morocco, MIRROR Leg 2, revealed the presence of a meddy south of the Azores front and very close to the Morocco coastline. This unusual location of a strong Mediterranean Water anomaly is confirmed by other data. Moreover, meddies are long-lived structures whose dynamics and dissipation are not yet completely understood. Recently, theoretical studies have revealed critical-level baroclinic instabilities of compact, lens-like vortices. This theory supports the slow growth of azimuthal eigenmodes along critical surfaces which leads to the formation of arms winding around the vortex developing sharp internal fronts. These structures are very thin and spatially intermittent and are identified for the first time in a seismic dataset; this is made possible by the length of seismic sections at high lateral resolution. Citation: Menesguen, C., B. L. Hua, X. Carton, F. Klingelhoefer, P. Schnurle, and C. Reichert (2012), Arms winding around a meddy seen in seismic reflection data close to the Morocco coastline, Geophys. Res. Lett., 39, L05604, doi:10.1029/2011GL050798.

Destabilization of mixed Rossby gravity waves and the formation of equatorial zonal jets.

The stability of mixed Rossby gravity (MRG) waves has been investigated numerically using three-dimensionally consistent high-resolution simulations of the continuously stratified primitive equations. For short enough zonal wavelength, the westward phase propagating MRG wave is strongly destabilized by barotropic shear instability leading to the formation of zonal jets. The large-scale instability of the zonally short wave generates zonal jets because it consists primarily of sheared meridional motions, as shown recently for the short barotropic Rossby wave problem. Simulations were done in a variety of domain geometries: a periodic re-entrant channel, a basin with a short MRG wave forced in its western part and a very long channel initialized with a zonally localized MRG wave. The characteristics of the zonal jets vary with the geometry. In the periodic re-entrant channel, barotropic zonal jets dominate the total flow response at the equator and its immediate vicinity. In the other cases, the destabilization leads to zonal jets with quite different characteristics, especially in the eastward group propagating part of the signal. The most striking result concerns the formation of zonal jets at the equator, alternating in sign in the vertical, with vertical scale short compared to the scale of the forcing or initial conditions. A stability analysis of a simplified perturbation vorticity equation is formulated to explain the spatial scale selection and growth rate of the zonal jets as functions of the characteristics of the basic state MRG wave. For both types of zonal jets, the model predicts that their meridional scales are comparable to the zonal scale of the MRG wave basic state, while their growth rates scale as μ xs221D Fr |k|, where Fr is the Froude number of the meridional velocity component of the basic state and k its non-dimensional zonal wavenumber. The vertical scale of the baroclinic zonal jets corresponds to the dominant harmonic ppeak of the basic state in the fastest growing mode, given by ppeak≈0.55k2. Thus, the shorter the zonal wavelength of the basic state MRG wave, the narrower the meridional scale of the zonal jets, both barotropic and baroclinic, with the vertical scale of the baroclinic jets being tied to their meridional scale through the equatorial radius of deformation, which decreases as the square root of the vertical wavenumber. The predictions of the spatial scales are in both qualitative and quantitative agreement with the numerical simulations, where shorter vertical scale baroclinic zonal jets are favoured by shorter-wavelength longer-period MRG wave basic states, with the vertical mode number increasing as the square of the MRG wave period. An Appendix deals with the case of zonally long and intermediate wavelength MRG waves, where a weak instability regime causes a moderate adjustment involving resonant triad interactions without leading to jet formation. For eastward phase propagating waves, adjustment does not lead to significant angular momentum redistribution.

Evidence of Mediterranean Water dipole collision in the Gulf of Cadiz

A collision of Mediterranean Water dipoles in the Gulf of Cadiz is studied here, using data from the MedTop and Semane experiments. First, a Mediterranean Water eddy (meddy) was surveyed hydrologically in November 2000 southwest of Cape Saint Vincent. Then, this meddy drifted northeastward from this position, accompanied by a cyclone (detected only via altimetry), thus forming a first dipole. In February 2001, a dipole of Mediterranean Water was measured hydrologically just after its formation near Portimao Canyon. This second dipole drifted southwestward. The western and eastern meddies had hydrological radii of about 22 and 25 km, respectively, with corresponding temperature and salinity maxima of (13.45°C, 36.78) and (11.40°C, 36.40). Rafos float trajectories and satellite altimetry indicate that these two dipoles collided early April 2001, south of Cape Saint Vincent, near 35°30′N, 10°15′W. More precisely, the eastern meddy wrapped around the western one. This merger resulted in an anticyclone (a meddy) which drifted southeastward, coupled with the eastern cyclone. Hydrological sections across this final third resulting dipole, performed in July 2001 in the southern Gulf of Cadiz, confirm this interaction: the thermohaline characteristics of the final meddy can be tracked back to the original structures. The subsequent evolution of this dipole was analyzed with Rafos float trajectories. A numerical simulation of the interaction between the two earlier dipoles is also presented. We suggest that these dipole collisions at the Mediterranean Water level may represent a mechanism of generation of the larger meddies that finally leave the Gulf of Cadiz.

Dynamics of the combined extra-equatorial and equatorial deep jets in the Atlantic

The available meridional sections of zonal velocity with high vertical and meridional resolution reveal tall eastward jets at 2N and 2S, named the extra-equatorial jets (EEJ), straddling the stacked eastward and westward jets of smaller vertical scales right at the equator, the so-called equatorial deep jets (EDJ). In contrast to the semi-annual to interannual fluctuations in the zonal velocity component, the measured meridional velocity component is dominated by intraseasonal period. We argue here that the formation mechanism for both types of jets is linked to the intraseasonal variability in meridional velocity and the associated wave motions. A process study is complemented by high resolution primitive equation simulations based on a realistic background stratification and an oscillating forcing inside the western boundary layer. The forcing confined to the upper 2500 m excites a spectrum of waves, including a baroclinic short Mixed Rossby-Gravity (MRG), whose instability leads to the formation of the EDJ and short barotropic Rossby waves, whose instability gives rise to the EEJ. The modeled EEJ and EDJ response is confined to the same depth range as the forcing. Potential vorticity is homogenized within specific depth ranges of westward EDJ and is found to be latitudinally confined between 2N and 2S by the EEJ. The combined EDJ and EEJ increase lateral mixing at the equator but also act as barriers at ±2 degrees of latitude.

Tracer Stirring Around a Meddy : The Formation of Layering

AbstractThe dynamics of the formation of layering surrounding meddy-like vortex lenses is investigated using primitive equation (PE), quasigeostrophic (QG), and tracer advection models. Recent in situ data inside a meddy confirmed the formation of highly density-compensated layers in temperature and salinity at the periphery of the vortex core. Very high-resolution PE modeling of an idealized meddy showed the formation of realistic layers even in the absence of double-diffusive processes. The strong density compensation observed in the PE model, in good agreement with in situ data, suggests that stirring might be a leading process in the generation of layering. Passive tracer experiments confirmed that the vertical variance cascade in the periphery of the vortex core is triggered by the vertical shear of the azimuthal velocity, resulting in the generation of thin layers. The time evolution of this process down to scales of O(10) m is quantified, and a simple scaling is proposed and shown to describe preci...

Effect of bandwidth on seismic imaging of rotating stratified turbulence surrounding an anticyclonic eddy from field data and numerical simulations

The fine resolution of long geoseismic sections should permit the characterization of oceanic turbulence properties over several decades of horizontal scales. The range of horizontal scales actually probed by three different acoustic sources is found to be directly linked to their frequency content. The horizontal inertial range with a spectral slope of k(h)(-5/3) extend up to 3 km wavelength for the most intense acoustic reflectors which surround strong anticyclonic eddies. The in situ data analysis is confirmed by high resolution numerical simulations of oceanic anticyclonic vortices, in a rotating temperature-stratified fluid (no salt), which show the spontaneous emergence of a concentration of acoustic reflectors above and below the eddy. These show an anisotropy and a spectral slope consistent with the framework of stratified turbulence, which differs from that of Garret and Munk for internal waves. The implications are that a direct energy cascade to smaller spatial scales is occurring at the boundaries of energetic oceanic vortices and may provide a mechanism to drive mixing in the ocean interior

Vortex stability in a multi-layer quasi-geostrophic model: application to Mediterranean Water eddies

The stability of circular vortices to normal mode perturbations is studied in a multi-layer quasi-geostrophic model. The stratification is fitted on the Gulf of Cadiz where many Mediterranean Water (MW) eddies are generated. Observations of MW eddies are used to determine the parameters of the reference experiment; sensitivity tests are conducted around this basic case. The objective of the study is two-fold: (a) determine the growth rates and nonlinear evolutions of unstable perturbations for different three-dimensional (3D) velocity structures of the vortices, (b) check if the different structure of our idealized vortices, mimicking MW cyclones and anticyclones, can induce different stability properties in a model that conserves parity symmetry, and apply these results to observed MW eddies. The linear stability analysis reveals that, among many 3D distributions of velocity, the observed eddies are close to maximal stability, with instability time scales longer than 100 days (these time scales would be less than 10 days for vertically more sheared eddies). The elliptical deformation is most unstable for realistic eddies (the antisymmetric one dominates for small eddies and the triangular one for large eddies); the antisymmetric mode is stronger for cyclones than for anticyclones. Nonlinear evolutions of eddies with radii of about 30 km, and elliptically perturbed, lead to their re-organization into 3D tripoles; smaller eddies are stable and larger eddies break into 3D dipoles. Horizontally more sheared eddies are more unstable and sustain more asymmetric instabilities. In summary, few differences were found between cyclone and anticyclone stability, except for strong horizontal velocity shears.

Cyclones and Anticyclones in Seismic Imaging

Nearly all the subsurface eddies detected in seismic imaging of sections in the northeast Atlantic have been assumed to be anticyclones containing Mediterranean Water (MW). Fewer MW cyclones have been observed and studied. In this study, the work of previous numerical studies is extended to investigate some characteristics of layering surrounding MW cyclones, using a primitive equation model with equal diffusivities for salinity and temperature to suppress the effects of double diffusion. It is shown that, after a stable state is reached, both anticyclones and cyclones display similar patterns of layering: stacked thin layers of high acoustic reflectivity located above and below the core of each vortex, which do not match isopycnals. The authors conclude that it should not be possible to distinguish between MW cyclones and anticyclones based on their signature in seismic imaging alone. Complementary information is needed to determine the sense of rotation.

Destabilization of an oceanic meddy-like vortex: energy transfers and significance of numerical settings

Abstract The increase of computational capabilities led recent studies to implement very high-resolution simulations that gave access to new scale interaction processes, particularly those associat...

The Dynamics of Quasigeostrophic Lens-Shaped Vortices

AbstractThe stability of lens-shaped vortices is revisited in the context of an idealized quasigeostrophic model. We compute the stability characteristics with higher accuracy and for a wider range of Burger numbers (Bu) than what was previously done. It is found that there are four distinct Bu regions of linear instability. Over the primary region of interest (0.1 < Bu < 10), we confirm that the first and second azimuthal modes are the only linearly unstable modes, and they are associated with vortex tilting and tearing, respectively. Moreover, the most unstable first azimuthal mode is not precisely captured by the linear stability analysis because of the extra condition that is imposed at the vortex center, and accurate calculations of the second azimuthal mode require higher resolution than was previously considered. We also study the nonlinear evolution of lens-shaped vortices in the context of this model and present the following results. First, vortices with a horizontal length scale a little less t...