Volume budget of the eastern boundary layer off the Iberian Peninsula

Abstract

Data from a hydrographic array carried out in May 1989 offshore of the Iberian Peninsula are used to determine the vertical distribution of zonal transports near the ocean eastern boundary (the so-called eastern boundary kinematic condition). Eastward transports of Central Water, Bottom Water and, more surprisingly, of Mediterranean Water, are found, complemented by westward flows at the deep-intermediate and deep levels. The top-to-bottom integrated estimate is 2 × 10 6 m 3 s −1 (±1.2 × 10 6 m 3 s −1) eastward across the studied 5° long meridional segment at 12°30′W. The meridional transports in the 300 km wide boundary layer are northward at all levels, and their vertical integral amounts to six times the zonal one. The finding of a net poleward flow of Central Water is discussed with regard to the notion of a southward Portugal Current. Seasonality of the eastern boundary processes is proposed as a clue to the apparent contradiction and is also suggested to influence the phenomenon of eastern boundary ventilation sometimes invoked in, or inferred from, theoretical studies. The pronounced bathymetric features of the region have strong effects on the details of the boundary layer circulation. At intermediate levels, three meridional advective paths carry the Mediterranean Water away from the west Iberian region: the northward slope undercurrent off Cape Finisterre and two branches in opposing directions west of the Galicia and Gorringe Banks. The meridionally averaged zonal transport of this water mass being eastward, it is argued that a direct entry of Mediterranean Water into the ocean interior can occur, at Iberian latitudes, only through westward meddy propagation. Hydrographic estimates of the eddy salinity transport across 12°30′W are indeed westward. A scaling analysis of the advection-diffusion equation of salinity at the level of Mediterranean Water is proposed, which includes these elements.