Etude de la circulation océanique en Méditerranée Nord-Occidentale à l'aide d'un modèle numérique à haute résolution: influence de la submésoéchelle

摘要

The North Western Mediterranean Sea is one of the few regions in the world where open-ocean deep convection occurs. The local cyclonic circulation brings weakly stratified waters close to the surface, that can, under special atmospheric conditions (winter strong cold winds and high heat loss rates), lead to vertical diapycnal mixing. This convection phenomenon is the origin of newly formed winter waters: Winter Intermediate Water (WIW) and new Western Mediterranean Deep Waters (nWMDW). When the strong forcing stops, the restratification of the mixed patch occurs by lateral advection of surrounding lighter waters. Mesoscale and submesoscale structures play an important role during these events, both by the sinking and the spreading of the new water formed.The SYMPHONIE model was implemented at 1km resolution over the north-western Mediterranean where recent convective years were simulated. The first objective was to review the capabilities of the high resolution model to reproduce the oceanic response to strong atmospheric cooling in terms of water formation and to resolve the submesoscale structures. To do so, comparisons were performed with the available data set.The activity of the small scale structures and the role they played were highlighted in a context of winter mixed layer deepening. The ageostrophic dynamic developed by submesoscale contributes to the enhancement of vertical velocities and lateral dispersion of properties leading to a global increase of surface layer density. As a consequence, the dense water formation and the ventilation of the deep basin is favored.For the first time, the formation of Submesoscale Coherent Vortices (SCVs) during deep convection events was documented in a realistic high resolution numerical simulation of the oceanic circulation in the north-western Mediterranean Sea. Anticyclonic and cyclonic eddies were formed presenting lifetimes exceeding one year and reflecting very slow diffusive processes between their core and their surroundings. These eddies were typical of SCVs observed in deep convection areas so far, which were found to participate in the spreading of a significant proportion (30%) of the newly formed waters and were of much importance for the ventilation of the deep basin.