Recent changes in deep water formation and spreading in the eastern Mediterranean Sea: a review

Lascaratos, A.; Roether, Wolfgang; Nittis, K.; Klein, Birgit

doi:10.1016/s0079-6611(99)00019-1

Cited by 383 publications

(315 citation statements)

References 34 publications

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“…Data before 1986 -1987 in the EMed exist only from bottle casts at standard depth levels which makes the investigation on the existence of dCIW rather difficult. Nevertheless, several papers [Lascaratos et al, 1999;Theocharis et al, 2002b;Skliris and Lascaratos, 2004;Skliris et al, 2007;Beuvier et al, 2010;Vervatis et al, 2013;Theocharis et al, 2014] based on both observations and numerical modeling have reported a similar event taking place in the eastern part of the EMed during the 1970s. This event was salinity induced and seems to have originated through dense water formation taking place in the Aegean and/or Levantine Seas during a salinity preconditioning phase.…”

Section: Events Of Dciw Outflow and ''Emt-like'' Episodes And Their Rmentioning

confidence: 94%

“…This salty invasion in the Cretan Sea acted as a preconditioning factor that favored enhanced winter convection in the following years. Indeed, during the peak production period of the EMT (1992EMT ( -1995, the intense winter episodes of 1992 and 1993 that were imposed on the already preconditioned Aegean Sea, produced even denser water masses, this time dense enough to reach the bottom layers of the EMed [Lascaratos et al, 1999;Theocharis et al, 1999b]. Although surface and intermediate water salinities in the Aegean Sea decreased after 1995 [Velaoras and Lascaratos, 2010], the Aegean Sea still exported dense water masses up to 1998-2000 but no longer dense enough to reach the bottom of the adjacent basins.…”

Section: Events Of Dciw Outflow and ''Emt-like'' Episodes And Their Rmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Dense intermediate water outflow from the Cretan Sea: A salinity driven, recurrent phenomenon, connected to thermohaline circulation changes

et al. 2014

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Data collected from different platforms in the Cretan Sea during the 2000s decade present evidence of gradually increasing salinity in the intermediate and deep intermediate layers after the middle of the decade. The observed gradual salt transport toward the deeper layers indicates contributions of dense water masses formed in various Aegean Sea subbasins. The accumulation of these saline and dense water masses in the Cretan Sea finally led to outflow from both Cretan Straits, with density greater than typical Levantine/Cretan Intermediate water but not dense enough to penetrate into the deep layers of the Eastern Mediterranean. We name this outflowing water mass as dense Cretan Intermediate Water (dCIW). A retrospective analysis of in situ data and literature references during the last four decades shows that similar events have occurred in the past in two occasions: (a) in the 1970s and (b) during the Eastern Mediterranean Transient (EMT) onset (1987)(1988)(1989)(1990)(1991). We argue that these salinity-driven Aegean outflows are mostly attributed to recurrent changes of the Eastern Mediterranean upper thermohaline circulation that create favorable dense water formation conditions in the Aegean Sea through salinity preconditioning. We identify these phenomena as ''EMT-like'' events and argue that in these cases internal thermohaline mechanisms dominate over atmospheric forcing in dense water production. However, intense atmospheric forcing over an already salinity preconditioned basin is indispensable for creating massive deep water outflow from the Cretan Sea, such as the EMT event.

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Section: Events Of Dciw Outflow and ''Emt-like'' Episodes And Their Rmentioning

confidence: 94%

Section: Events Of Dciw Outflow and ''Emt-like'' Episodes And Their Rmentioning

confidence: 99%

Dense intermediate water outflow from the Cretan Sea: A salinity driven, recurrent phenomenon, connected to thermohaline circulation changes

et al. 2014

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“…A major change in the deep water formation in the Eastern Mediterranean sea occurred ∼1990, basically, in the vicinity of the AdriaticAegean-Ionian seas [2,5,6,3,1,4]. Hydrographic surveys since early last century [7] indicated that the dominant source region for deep water over the entire Eastern Mediterranean, was the Adriatic sea; see Fig.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…For example, changes in the wind stress over the Aegean basin were related, using an OGCM, to the formation of the new Aegean source [18]. Dry and cold winters of 1987, 1992-93, were also related, using an OGCM, to the formation of the new Aegean source [5]. These studies based their numerical simulations on reanalysis data and didn't fully reproduce the entire Aegean source pattern.…”

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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“…[3] The EMT was a climatological event that affected the deep layers of the EMED in the late '80's [see MalanotteRizzoli et al, 1999;Lascaratos et al, 1999;Klein et al, 1999]. During this event, the circulation of the eastern Mediterranean experienced a dramatic change from the surface layers to the bottom, where dense water of Aegean origin replaced the resident Eastern Mediterranean Deep Water (EMDW) of Adriatic origin.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Deep and intermediate water in the western Mediterranean under the influence of the Eastern Mediterranean Transient

Schröder¹,

Gasparini

Tangherlini³

et al. 2006

Geophysical Research Letters

129

108

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The well known changes in the deep thermohaline circulation of the eastern Mediterranean Sea, the so‐called Eastern Mediterranean Transient (EMT), which modified the outflow characteristics through the Sicily Strait, led to significant changes in the western Mediterranean Sea since the early 90's. In spring 2005 an oceanographic survey, carried out in the central part of the western basin, showed the presence of a recently formed layer of western Mediterranean deep water, spreading at the bottom of the whole Algero‐Provençal Basin. It was characterized by unusual θ‐S shapes, as its temperature, salinity and density were higher with respect both to the resident deep waters and to the climatological values. The possible influence of the EMT on the deep water formation processes occurred in the Gulf of Lions in the previous winter is here evidenced, even taking into account other data sets previously collected in the western Mediterranean.

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Recent changes in deep water formation and spreading in the eastern Mediterranean Sea: a review

Cited by 383 publications

References 34 publications

Dense intermediate water outflow from the Cretan Sea: A salinity driven, recurrent phenomenon, connected to thermohaline circulation changes

Dense intermediate water outflow from the Cretan Sea: A salinity driven, recurrent phenomenon, connected to thermohaline circulation changes

Box modeling of the Eastern Mediterranean sea

Deep and intermediate water in the western Mediterranean under the influence of the Eastern Mediterranean Transient

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