Mesoscale ocean eddies are ubiquitous swirls of water in the world oceans. In the framework of MESO-CLIP we will investigate how strongly and on what timescales these eddies affect the variability and predictability of the ocean and of the atmosphere.
The main goal of MESO-CLIP is to study the impact of mesoscale ocean eddies on climate variability and predictability. Satellite observations have shown that ocean mesoscale eddies are ubiquitous in the world oceans and occur in regions of baroclinic instability, regions characterized by sharp temperature contrasts in water masses (e.g. Antarctic Circumpolar Current, Gulf Stream, Kuroshio, and Agulhas retroflection). It is widely acknowledged that mesoscale ocean eddies play a major role in the mixing and transport of water properties. However to what extent these eddies project onto the large scale ocean circulation is far from fully understood.
Dr. Joël Hirschi (Lead PI)
Dr. Florian Sevellec (PI)