Satellite observation of sharp frontal shear instabilities and surface jets in the Mediterranean Sea

R. D'Archino; Francesco Bignami; Emanuele Boehm; E. D’Acunzo; Ettore Salusti

doi:10.1117/12.474407

14 February 2003 Satellite observation of sharp frontal shear instabilities and surface jets in the Mediterranean Sea

R. D'Archino, Francesco Bignami, Emanuele Boehm, E. D’Acunzo, Ettore Salusti

Proceedings Volume 4880, Remote Sensing of the Ocean and Sea Ice 2002; (2003) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.474407
Event: International Symposium on Remote Sensing, 2002, Crete, Greece

Abstract

In this study we analyse thermal satellite images relative to years 1997-2000, to infer cold filaments and surface jets dynamics in the Mediterranean Sea. The main zones in which these phenomena are seen to occur are characterised by upwelling and/or the funnelling of strong cold winds by somewhat irregular coastal topography. Indeed, intense air-sea interaction in the coastal zone are known to generate a particularly strong input of potential vorticity into marine water, and this in turn gives origin to upwellings, cold filaments and jets. In the Mediterranean Sea, the geographical zones more "rich" in these jets are the two lobes of the southern Sicilian coast, the sea off Olbia in Sardinia, that South of the island of Crete, where a particularly intense large scale turbulence field is evident, and the Balkanic coast of the Adriatic sea. In addition, the theoretical analysis of these jets' evolution using a modern version of the potential vorticity conservation, valid even if friction and entrainment are to be considered , gives some insight into these systems' dynamics.

Citation Download Citation

R. D'Archino, Francesco Bignami, Emanuele Boehm, E. D’Acunzo, and Ettore Salusti "Satellite observation of sharp frontal shear instabilities and surface jets in the Mediterranean Sea", Proc. SPIE 4880, Remote Sensing of the Ocean and Sea Ice 2002, (14 February 2003); https://doi.org/10.1117/12.474407

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