Eastern Mediterranean deep water renewal on the basis of chlorofluoromethane and tritium data

Roether, Wolfgang; Schlitzer, Reiner

doi:10.1016/0377-0265(91)90025-b

Cited by 173 publications

(100 citation statements)

References 14 publications

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“…The formation of ASOW in the southern Adriatic pit is based on interactions between the LIW and water masses coming from the northern Adriatic Sea as well as the natural preconditioning factors, for example, wind stress and heat loss (Artegiani et al, 1996a, b). The ASOW flows over the sill of Otranto into the Ionian Sea intruding into the bottom layer and thus representing a source of eastern Mediterranean deep water (EMDW) Roether and Schlitzer, 1991). Furthermore, the Ionian Sea is connected with the Levantine Sea via the Cretan Passage, where portions of newly formed EMDW reach the deep water of the Levantine Sea.…”

Section: T Stöven and T Tanhua: Vent Med Constrained By Transientmentioning

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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Section: T Stöven and T Tanhua: Vent Med Constrained By Transientmentioning

confidence: 99%

Ventilation of the Mediterranean Sea constrained by multiple transient tracer measurements

Stöven

Tanhua

2014

Ocean Sci.

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“…Waters outflowing from the Adriatic were deposited in the bottom of the Ionian sea [8]; then they spread southward and eastward [9,10]. The deep water overturning time was approximately 100 years with an average formation rate of 0.3 Sv = 0.3 ×10 6 m 3 s −1 [11]. An additional, much more dominant, source of deep water was found in a hydrographic survey during 1995 [1].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Box modeling of the Eastern Mediterranean sea

Ashkenazy

Stone

Malanotte‐Rizzoli

2012

Physica A: Statistical Mechanics and its Applications

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In ∼1990 a new source of deep water formation in the Eastern Mediterranean was found in the southern part of the Aegean sea. Till then, the only source of deep water formation in the Eastern Mediterranean was in the Adriatic sea; the rate of the deep water formation of the new Aegean source is 1 Sv, three times larger than the Adriatic source. We develop a simple three box-model to study the stability of the thermohaline circulation of the Eastern Mediterranean sea. The three boxes represent the Adriatic sea, Aegean sea, and the Ionian seas. The boxes exchange heat and salinity and may be described by a set of nonlinear differential equations. We analyze these equations and find that the system may have one, two, or four stable flux states. We conjecture that the change in the deep water formation in the Eastern Mediterranean sea is attributed to a switch between the different states on the thermohaline circulation; this switch may result from decreased temperature and/or increased salinity over the Aegean sea.

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“…5-38.7 psu, respectively (Zore-Armanda, 1963;Artegiani et al, 1997a;Vilibic and Orlic, 2002;Mantziafou and Lascaratos, 2008). SAdw are recognized as one of the major contributors to the ventilation of deep waters in the whole Eastern Mediterranean (Roether and Schlitzer, 1991;Steinfeldt, 2004;Vilibic and Supic, 2005). The dense-water formation processes in the Southern Adriatic show a significant inter-annual variability (Gacic et al, 2002b;Mantziafou and Lascaratos, 2008).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

A study of the hydrographic conditions in the Adriatic Sea from numerical modelling and direct observations (2000–2008)

Oddo

Guarnieri

2011

Ocean Sci.

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Abstract. The inter-annual variability of Adriatic Sea hydrographic characteristics is investigated by means of numerical simulation and direct observation. The period under investigation runs from the beginning of 2000 to the end of 2008. The model used to carry out the simulation is derived from the primitive equation component of the Adriatic Forecasting System (AFS). The model is based on the Princeton Ocean Model (POM) adapted in order to reproduce the features of the Adriatic. Both numerical findings and observations agree in depicting a strong inter-annual variability in the entire Adriatic Sea and its sub-basins. Nevertheless, two model deficiencies are identified: an excessive vertical/horizontal mixing and an inaccurate representation of the thermohaline properties of the entering Mediterranean Waters. The dense water formation process has been found to be intermittent. In addition to inter-annual variability, a long-scale signal has been observed in the salinity content of the basin as a consequence of a prolonged period of reduced Po river runoff and high evaporation rates. As a result, the temperature and salinity of the northern Adriatic dense water vary considerably between the beginning and the end of the period investigated.

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Eastern Mediterranean deep water renewal on the basis of chlorofluoromethane and tritium data

Cited by 173 publications

References 14 publications

Ventilation of the Mediterranean Sea constrained by multiple transient tracer measurements

Ventilation of the Mediterranean Sea constrained by multiple transient tracer measurements

Box modeling of the Eastern Mediterranean sea

A study of the hydrographic conditions in the Adriatic Sea from numerical modelling and direct observations (2000–2008)

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