Near‐inertial and tidal currents detected with a vessel‐mounted acoustic Doppler current profiler in the western Mediterranean Sea

Abstract

The objective of this study is to separate the subinertial, inertial, and tidal fields from vessel‐mounted acoustic Doppler current profiler (VM‐ADCP) observations acquired during six cruises in the Catalan and Alboran Seas (western Mediterranean Sea). To fulfill this objective we use a method that successfully detects and filters out the main high frequencies that are present in the VM‐ADCP data. The resulting near‐inertial component has frequencies below the Coriolis frequency f in the Catalan Sea, and above f in the Alboran Sea. The tidal component is consistent with observed and modeled tides in the Catalan and Alboran Seas. The steady component is highly correlated with the geostrophic field. There is also a nonfitted (or residual) component, which represents the misfit between the VM‐ADCP data and the model proposed.