Source: JGR Oceans, Volume 127, Issue 8, First published 14 June 2022
Dr. Daniel Hayes co-authored a recently published research article in the Journal of Geophysical Research: Oceans, Volume 127, Issue 6. The work was a cooperative effort among scientists in France, Italy, Greece, Turkey, Israel and Cyprus. The primary author is Sorbonne University’s Dr. V. Taillandier.
The “Sources of the Levantine Intermediate Water in Winter 2019” research article summarizes an oceanographic study that combined observations of temperature and salinity from dedicated oceanographic cruise surveys, an autonomous glider and array of profiling floats.
Dr. Hayes contributed on behalf of the University of Cyprus, including the operation of a glider over several months. Between December 2018 and February 2019, it was in the study region and crossed the convection zone during the first mixing event detected in the study. In total, the glider contributed 87 of its CTD profiles to this study.
The Role of Gliders
Like the large global oceans, the Mediterranean has a very slow overturning circulation: it is like a conveyor belt importing slightly cooler fresher water from the Atlantic (via Gibraltar) and making it warmer and saltier between Cyprus and Greece before exporting it back to the North Atlantic Ocean. This is a very complex and difficult to observe process, but gliders were able to add unique insights because of their high resolution sampling and ability work throughout the winter season.
Dr. Daniel Hayes
Researchers explored how the formation of dense and salty waters called the Levantine Intermediate Water fits into this Mediterranean overturning circulation using an in-situ multi-platform approach. They show that of two competing source regions, the Cretan Sea was more productive than the Rhodes Gyre region in converting salty Levantine Surface Water to saltier, denser Levantine Intermediate Water.