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2002 LAPCOD Meeting
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The Aegean Sea Pilot Drifter Program
Donald Olson, Villy Kourafalou, William Johns, Geoffrey Samuels and Milena Veneziani
Rosenstiel School of Marine and Atmospheric Science
dolson@rsmas.miami.edu, villy@rsmas.miami.edu(Abstract received 10/29/2002 for session A)
ABSTRACT
A pilot program to study the circulation in the Aegean Sea using Global Positioning surface drifters is currently underway in cooperation with the Greek National Center for Marine Research and the University of Athens. Thirty drifters have been launched in the northern Aegean starting in March 2002. The purpose of this presentation is to provide a first overview of the data set collected as of late September 2002.
The major features described in the data set are the mesoscale field in the region which is dominated by eddies trapped within the deep subbasins and a coastal jet along the western side of the Aegean. These circulations interact strongly with the numerous islands and gulfs. In the northern basin there is a drift along the coast where drifters are drawn into the elongated gulfs. Two cases of current bifurcations along coasts are visualized by the array. The first of these involves drifters moving into a gulf versus being entrained into the coastal flow that takes them southward along the length of Greece. The southern part of the Chios Basin is dominated by a large cyclonic circulation. The data suggest inflow to the Aegean along the eastern margin and outflow through the Cyclades islands focused in the west.
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2002 LAPCOD Meeting, Key Largo, Florida, December 12-16, 2000