Detection of Intermediate Mediterranean Waters in the Atlantic Ocean by ARGO Floats Data

Abstract

Peculiarities of the spatial distribution of intermediate Mediterranean waters (MW), which are the main source to maintain the heat and salt budgets at depths of 600–1500 m in the Atlantic Ocean, have been studied using the ARGO floats measurements database. About 75000 temperature and salinity profiles recorded by 900 ARGO floats in 2005–2014 in the Atlantic Ocean for latitudes from 20° to 50° N were used. To process these data, we used the ARGO-Based Model for Investigation of the Global Ocean (AMIGO). This technique allowed us for the first time to obtain a complete set of oceanographic characteristics up to a depth of 2000 m for different time averaging intervals (month, season, years). Joint analysis of the temperature, salinity, and velocity distributions at 700–1000 m depths made it possible to revise the distribution of MW and their penetration into the western part of the ocean across the Mid-Atlantic Ridge (MAR). It is shown that at depths of 700 and 1000 m, the Mid-Atlantic Ridge is a barrier to advective propagation of salty waters (>35.5 PSU) to the west and is transparent to fragments of destroyed intrathermocline lenses (ITL) with lower salinity (<35.4 PSU). In the Atlantic region, from 20° to 35° N and from 30° to 70° W, individual lens profiles with an anomalous salinity distribution were sought using ARGO measurements to detect ITL and its separate fragments. About 24 000 measurements from 370 ARGO floats were analyzed, and only about 3% of them showed weak salinity anomalies at 800–1200 m depths. No ITL were found from these observations. Analysis of long-term drifting of individual floats recording temperature and salinity profiles with anomalous layers made it possible to study the nature of MW transport through the MAR.