Argo floats revealing bimodality of large-scale mid-depth circulation in the North Atlantic

作     者：CHU Peter C IVANOV Leonid M MELNICHENKO Oleg V LI Rongfeng 

作者机构：Department of Oceanography Naval Postgraduate School Monterey California USA International Pacific Research Center University of Hawaii at Manoa Hawaii USA Institute of Atmospheric Physics Chinese Academy of Sciences Beijing 100029 China 

出 版 物：《Acta Oceanologica Sinica》 (海洋学报（英文版）)

年 卷 期：2008年第27卷第2期

页      面：1-10页

核心收录：

学科分类：07[理学] 0707[理学-海洋科学] 

基　　金：The Naval Postgraduate School and the National Natural Science Foundation of China 

主　　题：Argo trajectory data Atlantic Ocean biomodality mid-depth circulation optimal spectral decomposition 

摘      要：Analysis of Argo float trajectories at 1 000 m and temperature at 950 m in the North Atlantic between November 2003 and January 2005 demonstrates the existence of two different circulation modes with fast transition between them. Each mode has a pair of cyclonic - anticyclonic gyres. The difference is the location of the cyclonic gyre. The cyclonic gyre stretches from southeast to northwest in the first mode and from the southwest to the northeast in the second mode. The observed modes strongly affect the heat and salt transport in the North Atlantic. In particular, the second mode slows down the westward transport of the warm and saline water from the Mediterranean Sea.