Eddy resolving modelling of the Gulf of Lions and Catalan Sea

The generation process of strong long-lived eddies flowing southwestwards along the Catalan slope was revealed through numerical modelling and in situ observations. Careful analyses of a particular event in autumn 2007 demonstrated a link between a “LATEX” eddy, which remained in the southwestern corner of the Gulf of Lions and a “CATALAN” eddy, which moved along the Catalan Shelf, since the death of the former gave birth to the latter. The origin of such eddies was found to be an accumulation of potential energy in the southwestern corner of the Gulf of Lions: under the influence of the negative wind stress curl associated with the Tramontane, a warm and less dense water body can be isolated and fed by a coastal current carrying warm water from the Catalan Sea. In summer, this structure can grow and intensify to generate a strong anticyclonic eddy. After a long period of Tramontane, a burst of southeasterlies and northerlies appeared to detach the “LATEX” eddy, which flowed out of the Gulf of Lions, migrating along the Catalan continental slope and continued into the Balearic Sea as the “CATALAN” eddy.