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Statistical description of the Black Sea near-surface circulation using drifters in 1999-2003
Riccardo Barbanti, Pierre-Marie Poulain, Sergey Motyzhev and Andrei Zatsepin
Istituto Nazionale di Oceanografia e di Geofisica Sperimentale (OGS), Trieste, Italy
rbarbanti@ogs.trieste.it(Abstract received 04/20/2005 for session A)
ABSTRACT
The near-surface circulation in the Black Sea is studied using the data of 55 satellite-tracked drifters in the period 1999-2003. The drifter trajectories confirm the prevalence of the Rim Current trapped along the periphery of the basin where sub-inertial speeds can reach 1 m/s. Meanders and loops in the tracks prove the existence of mostly anticyclonic features inshore of the Rim Current. They also reveal the presence of cyclonic and anticyclonic currents in most areas of the Black Sea. Pseudo-Eulerian statistics (mean currents and velocity variances) show a strong and highly fluctuating signature of the Rim Current, and the enhanced variability associated with the Batumi and Sevastopol eddies. The Rim Current tends to form a stronger single loop trapped on the continental slope in winter/spring, whereas in summer/fall the mean circulation is more meandering and recirculation cells appear in the central areas. In the Batumi eddy region, the currents change from mainly anticyclonic in summer/fall to cyclonic in winter/spring. Mean residence times were calculated in the 50-km bins, with values ranging from 2 to 8 days. Single-particle Lagrangian statistics (velocity variance, diffusivity and Lagrangian integral time scales) were also estimated. They appear generally larger in the zonal direction.
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2005 LAPCOD Meeting, Lerici, Italy, June 13-17, 2005