About the seasonal variability of the Alboran Sea circulation

Variations of Mediterranean–Atlantic exchange across the late Pliocene climate transition

“…Bormans et al, 1986;Ovchinnikov, 1974;Parada and Cantón, 1998;Vargas-Yáñez et al, 2002) can be the cause of Sea Surface Salinity (SSS) and Sea Surface Temperature (SST) variability. While seasonal changes of SSS are < 0.5, SST variability is more prominent and may result in brief temporary reversals of SST gradients (MEDATLAS, 2002;Rogerson et al, 2010).…”

“…Mediterranean-Atlantic water mass exchange through the Strait of Gibraltar is driven by a two directional current system in which the westward outflow of warm and saline Mediterranean Outflow Water (MOW) at the bottom, driven by excess evaporation in the Mediterranean, is compensated by the 35 inflow of colder and less saline North Atlantic Central Water (NACW) at the surface (Bormans et al, 1986;Ochoa and Bray, 1991;Vargas-Yáñez et al, 2002). Mediterranean-Atlantic exchange plays an important role for regional and global climate in two respects.…”

“…At the surface (0 -~200 m), inflowing Atlantic water enters the Mediterranean basin (Millot, 75 1999). On its way, it mixes with upwelled MOW within the Strait of Gibraltar (Folkard et al, 1997) and with surface waters of the Alboran Sea, creating the Modified Atlantic Water with temperatures of 15-16 °C and salinity of 36.5 (Millot, 1999), which follows two anticyclonic gyres, the Western Alboran Gyre (WAG) and the Eastern Alboran Gyre (EAG) (Gascard and Richez, 1985;Vargas-Yáñez et al, 2002). The northern Alboran Sea is affected by upwelling along the Spanish coast providing nutrients and enhanced 80 primary productivity (Minas et al, 1991;Peeters et al, 2002;Sarhan et al, 2000).…”

Two decades of mesoscale phenomena on either side of the Strait of Gibraltar

“…3b) is noticeably smaller than the mean ADT, suggesting that the WAG is a robust feature of the AS circulation. The EAG has not left a clear footprint in mean values; variability in this area is greater than the mean ADT values and the word meander appears to be more appropriate to describe this structure (see Vargas-Yáñez et al 2002, Flexas et al 2006. North of the AJ (whose northern edge could be roughly identified by the 10 cm isoline in Fig.…”

“…In the first case, the AJ flows attached to the African coast from the eastern side of the SG, a situation often known as the coastal mode of the AJ (VargasYáñez et al 2002) that is most frequently observed in winter months. Other situations would correspond to transients during which a new WAG is being formed, a process that takes place in few weeks (Vélez-Belchí et al 2005), or to the co-existence of three gyres in the basin that migrate eastwards (Viúdez et al 1998b, Vargas-Yáñez et al 2002, Flexas et al 2006.…”