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A high-resolution modeling study of the Western Iberian Margin mean and seasonal upper ocean circulation

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Abstract

The mean seasonal hydrography and circulation of the Western Iberian Margin (WIM) are studied by means of a high-resolution configuration of the Regional Oceanic Modeling System. A comparison of 5-year model averages for January and July with climatological datasets shows a general good agreement in the reproduction of the mean water mass properties and hydrographic distribution. We find that there is a prevailing tendency for slope poleward flow at about 80–100 km offshore at all latitudes from the surface to 1,500 m with strong vertical coupling. This northward flow, which is mainly along slope and amounts up to 8–10 cm s−1, exhibits several mean flow recirculation regions on its way and evidences of an offshore pathway of poleward flow. Transports at different zonal sections further confirm the poleward flow tendency with two peaks of poleward transport in summer (3–10 Sv) and winter (2–7 Sv). The transport time series emphasize the seasonal character of the alongshore circulation and the interannual intrinsic variability of the circulation, since the forcing fields are climatological. As a conceptual essay with the purpose of assessing the Mediterranean Water flow influence on the WIM mean circulation, a second model configuration is setup, where the Mediterranean outflow into the study domain is removed. We find that there is an attenuation of the mesoscale field, but the slope poleward flow intensifies and remains as a mean dynamical feature closer to the upper slope.

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Acknowledgments

The Fundação para a Ciência e Tecnologia (FCT) provided a PhD grant to ACP (SFRH/BD/47500/2008). This work is part of the “ISCAD—Inner shelf circulation and dispersion patterns: interactions with estuarine systems”, PTDC/MAR/65760/2006 research project, also funded by the FCT under the European Regional Development Fund. This paper is also a contribution to CAIBEX project (CTM2007-66408-C02) (Spanish Ministry of Education and Science) and to RAIA project (0313_RAIA_1_E) funded by POCTEP and FEDER that supported NC grant.

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  1. Department of Physics, Campus de Santiago, Centro de Estudos do Ambiente e do Mar (CESAM), University of Aveiro, 3810-193, Aveiro, Portugal

    Rita Nolasco, Ana Cordeiro Pires, Nuno Cordeiro & Jesus Dubert

  2. Laboratoire de Physique des Océans, UMR 6523 CNRS/UBO/IFREMER/IRD, Université de Bretagne Occidentale, Brest, France

    Bernard Le Cann

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  1. Rita Nolasco
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  2. Ana Cordeiro Pires
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Correspondence to Rita Nolasco.

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Nolasco, R., Pires, A.C., Cordeiro, N. et al. A high-resolution modeling study of the Western Iberian Margin mean and seasonal upper ocean circulation. Ocean Dynamics 63, 1041–1062 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10236-013-0647-8

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