NICOP - Frontogenesis and Subduction at the Alboran Front
Abstract
This proposal is for a pilot field campaign and modeling efforts to study vertical motion at an oceanic front. The Alboran Sea, which lies in the Western Mediterranean, is home to a quasi-permanent front that separates fresher Atlantic water entering the Mediterranean through Gibraltar, from the more saline and dense water of the Mediterranean. As the front intensifies, it generates an along-isopycnal vertical motion that is estimated to be of the order of 100 m per day. The objective is to measure orinfer the frontal vertical velocity, estimate the associated vertical mass flux, andunderstand the physical mechanisms that lead to the vertical motion.A retrospective decadal analysis based on satellite altimetry in the Alboran Sea will be performed, specifically addressing the identification of the Alboran front and its variability. Fieldwork will be carried out in collaboration with colleagues from Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, who have submitted a proposal to ONR (US). In a joint field experiment that will be conducted from the Research Vessel SOCIB, the front will be mapped in detail, using the thermosalinograph at surface, ADCP, underway CTD, two gliders, drifters, and buoys with subsurface ADCP to infer vertical velocity in the context of the frontal physics. The SOCIB operational forecasting regional model (WMOP) will be used together with a process oriented model (PSOM, WHOI) to understand the mechanisms in a time-evolving frame.
Document Details
- Document Type
- DoD Grant Award
- Publication Date
- May 05, 2017
- Source ID
- N629091712049
Entities
People
- Ananda Pascual
Organizations
- Office of Naval Research
- Spanish National Research Council
- United States Navy