Eddies in the Western Mediterranean Seen by spaceborne radar

Abstract

In the present study we analyze manifestations of submeso- and mesoscale eddies in the Western Mediterranean Sea found in Envisat Advanced Synthetic Aperture Radar (ASAR) imagery of 2010-2011. Location of mesoscale eddies found in the imagery outlined the main stream of the basin. Special attention is being paid to the relation between the numbers of cyclonic and anticyclonic eddies at different spatial scales. It is shown that eddies less than 60 km in diameter are dominantly cyclonic; at some intermediate scales (about 70 km) there is a balance between the numbers of cyclonic and anticyclonic eddies and at largest scales (>100 km) eddies are predominantly anticyclonic.