Ocean bottom pressure variability in the Mediterranean Sea and its relationship with sea level from a numerical model

© 2014 Elsevier B.V. The spatial and temporal scales of variability of ocean bottom pressure (Pb) in the Mediterranean Sea are characterized and their relationship with sea level was assessed using a high resolution eddy-permitting regional ocean model spanning the period 1999-2011. It was found tha...

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Detalles Bibliográficos
Autor: Marcos, Marta
Tipo de recurso: artículo
Estado:Versión aceptada para publicación
Fecha de publicación:2014
País:España
Institución:Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas (CSIC)
Repositorio:DIGITAL.CSIC. Repositorio Institucional del CSIC
OAI Identifier:oai:digital.csic.es:10261/126078
Acceso en línea:http://hdl.handle.net/10261/126078
Access Level:acceso abierto
Palabra clave:Mediterranean Sea
Ocean bottom pressure
Sea level
Descripción
Sumario:© 2014 Elsevier B.V. The spatial and temporal scales of variability of ocean bottom pressure (Pb) in the Mediterranean Sea are characterized and their relationship with sea level was assessed using a high resolution eddy-permitting regional ocean model spanning the period 1999-2011. It was found that rapid (periods of a few days) bottom pressure fluctuations are coherent with sea level and are decoupled between the eastern and western basins as a result of topographic constraints. In the longer periods, steric processes gained relevance away from the coast and partially broke the coherence between sea level and Pb, especially on the western basin. Results confirm that sea level changes are predominantly barotropic over most of the basin and at all time scales, except for the annual cycle. Along the coasts sea level fluctuations reflected local steric processes taking place in their vicinity. This effect was stronger on the western basin, whereas the coasts of the Eastern Mediterranean arise as the most suitable proxies for basin wide long term (>60days) mean sea level (or ocean bottom pressure) changes at non-seasonal periods.