Articles | Volume 21, issue 5
https://doi.org/10.5194/os-21-1849-2025
© Author(s) 2025. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
https://doi.org/10.5194/os-21-1849-2025
© Author(s) 2025. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
Research article
| 
01 Sep 2025
Research article |
| 01 Sep 2025
| 01 Sep 2025
Mesoscale dynamics and transport in the North Brazil Current as revealed by the EUREC4A-OA experiment
Yan Barabinot
CORRESPONDING AUTHOR
Laboratoire de Météorologie Dynamique (LMD), ENS, Université Paris Sciences et Lettres, 24 rue Lhomond, Paris 75005, France
Sabrina Speich
Laboratoire de Météorologie Dynamique (LMD), ENS, Université Paris Sciences et Lettres, 24 rue Lhomond, Paris 75005, France
Xavier Carton
Laboratoire d'Océanographie Physique et Spatiale (LOPS), Université de Bretagne Occidentale (UBO), IUEM, rue Dumont Durville, Plouzané 29280, France
Pierre L'Hégaret
Cedre, 715 rue Alain Colas, Brest 29200, France
Corentin Subirade
Laboratoire d’Océanologie et de Géoscience (LOG), Université du Littoral Côte d'Opale (ULCO), 21 rue Saint-Louis, Boulogne-sur-Mer 62200, France
Rémi Laxenaire
Laboratoire de l'Atmosphère et des Cyclones (LACy), Université de la Réunion, 15 avenue René Cassin – CS 92003, La Réunion, France
Johannes Karstensen
GEOMAR Helmholtz Centre for Ocean Research Kiel, Wischhofstraße 1–3, 24148 Kiel, Germany
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Yan Barabinot, Sabrina Speich, and Xavier Carton
EGUsphere, https://doi.org/10.22541/essoar.170158288.87102456/v2, https://doi.org/10.22541/essoar.170158288.87102456/v2, 2025
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Mesoscale eddies, characterized by rotating currents, are ubiquitous in the ocean. However, their three-dimensional structure remains poorly observed and analyzed, with transport estimates often relying on approximations. To better quantify their shape, we propose a new theoretical framework based on geophysical fluid dynamics and apply it to field observations.
Yan Barabinot, Sabrina Speich, and Xavier Carton
Ocean Sci., 21, 151–179, https://doi.org/10.5194/os-21-151-2025, https://doi.org/10.5194/os-21-151-2025, 2025
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Mesoscale eddies are ubiquitous rotating currents in the ocean. Some eddies, called "materially coherent", are able to transport a different water mass from the surrounding water. By analyzing 3D eddy structures sampled during oceanographic cruises, we found that eddies can be nonmaterially coherent, accounting only for their surface properties, but materially coherent considering their properties at depth. Future studies cannot rely solely on satellite data to evaluate heat and salt transport.
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This preprint is open for discussion and under review for Ocean Science (OS).
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We use a high-resolution ocean-atmosphere coupled simulation to assess the effects of fine-scale sea surface temperature, surface currents, and ocean vertical stratification on the spatial variability of latent heat flux in the Northwest Tropical Atlantic. The results show significant impacts from these three variables in latent heat flux. They stress the need to account for fine-scale ocean processes in the coarser global coupled models even in relatively quiescent regions like the tropics.
Yawouvi Dodji Soviadan, Miriam Beck, Joelle Habib, Alberto Baudena, Laetitia Drago, Alexandre Accardo, Remi Laxenaire, Sabrina Speich, Peter Brandt, Rainer Kiko, and Stemmann Lars
Biogeosciences, 22, 3485–3501, https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-22-3485-2025, https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-22-3485-2025, 2025
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Yan Barabinot, Sabrina Speich, and Xavier Carton
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Mesoscale eddies, characterized by rotating currents, are ubiquitous in the ocean. However, their three-dimensional structure remains poorly observed and analyzed, with transport estimates often relying on approximations. To better quantify their shape, we propose a new theoretical framework based on geophysical fluid dynamics and apply it to field observations.
Alexandre Accardo, Rémi Laxenaire, Alberto Baudena, Sabrina Speich, Rainer Kiko, and Lars Stemmann
Biogeosciences, 22, 1183–1201, https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-22-1183-2025, https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-22-1183-2025, 2025
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The open ocean helps mitigate climate change by storing CO2 via the biological carbon pump (BCP), which involves processes like organic carbon production at the surface and transferring it to the deep ocean via various pathways. By deploying an autonomous platform, we found significant marine snow accumulation from the surface to the mesopelagic zone in frontal regions between eddies. We suggest that the coupling of hydrodynamics at eddy edges and biological activity may enhance this process.
Yan Barabinot, Sabrina Speich, and Xavier Carton
Ocean Sci., 21, 151–179, https://doi.org/10.5194/os-21-151-2025, https://doi.org/10.5194/os-21-151-2025, 2025
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Mesoscale eddies are ubiquitous rotating currents in the ocean. Some eddies, called "materially coherent", are able to transport a different water mass from the surrounding water. By analyzing 3D eddy structures sampled during oceanographic cruises, we found that eddies can be nonmaterially coherent, accounting only for their surface properties, but materially coherent considering their properties at depth. Future studies cannot rely solely on satellite data to evaluate heat and salt transport.
Taavi Liblik, Daniel Rak, Enriko Siht, Germo Väli, Johannes Karstensen, Laura Tuomi, Louise C. Biddle, Madis-Jaak Lilover, Māris Skudra, Michael Naumann, Urmas Lips, and Volker Mohrholz
EGUsphere, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2024-2272, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2024-2272, 2024
Preprint archived
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Eight current meters were deployed to the seafloor across the Baltic to enhance knowledge about circulation and currents. The experiment was complemented by autonomous vehicles. Stable circulation patterns were observed at the sea when weather was steady. Strong and quite persistent currents were observed at the key passage for the deep-water renewal of the Northern Baltic Sea. Deep water renewal mostly occurs during spring and summer periods in the northern Baltic Sea.
Jonathan Andrew Baker, Richard Renshaw, Laura Claire Jackson, Clotilde Dubois, Doroteaciro Iovino, Hao Zuo, Renellys C. Perez, Shenfu Dong, Marion Kersalé, Michael Mayer, Johannes Mayer, Sabrina Speich, and Tarron Lamont
State Planet, 1-osr7, 4, https://doi.org/10.5194/sp-1-osr7-4-2023, https://doi.org/10.5194/sp-1-osr7-4-2023, 2023
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We use ocean reanalyses, in which ocean models are combined with observations, to infer past changes in ocean circulation and heat transport in the South Atlantic. Comparing these estimates with other observation-based estimates, we find differences in their trends, variability, and mean heat transport but closer agreement in their mean overturning strength. Ocean reanalyses can help us understand the cause of these differences, which could improve estimates of ocean transports in this region.
Saeed Hariri, Sabrina Speich, Bruno Blanke, and Marina Lévy
Ocean Sci., 19, 1183–1201, https://doi.org/10.5194/os-19-1183-2023, https://doi.org/10.5194/os-19-1183-2023, 2023
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This work presents a series of studies conducted by the authors on the application of the Lagrangian approach for the connectivity analysis between different ocean locations in an idealized open-ocean model. We assess how the connectivity properties of typical oceanic flows are affected by the fine-scale circulation and discuss the challenges facing ocean connectivity estimates related to the spatial resolution. Our results are important to improve the understanding of marine ecosystems.
Pierre L'Hégaret, Florian Schütte, Sabrina Speich, Gilles Reverdin, Dariusz B. Baranowski, Rena Czeschel, Tim Fischer, Gregory R. Foltz, Karen J. Heywood, Gerd Krahmann, Rémi Laxenaire, Caroline Le Bihan, Philippe Le Bot, Stéphane Leizour, Callum Rollo, Michael Schlundt, Elizabeth Siddle, Corentin Subirade, Dongxiao Zhang, and Johannes Karstensen
Earth Syst. Sci. Data, 15, 1801–1830, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-15-1801-2023, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-15-1801-2023, 2023
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In early 2020, the EUREC4A-OA/ATOMIC experiment took place in the northwestern Tropical Atlantic Ocean, a dynamical region where different water masses interact. Four oceanographic vessels and a fleet of autonomous devices were deployed to study the processes at play and sample the upper ocean, each with its own observing capability. The article first describes the data calibration and validation and second their cross-validation, using a hierarchy of instruments and estimating the uncertainty.
Adriana Bailey, Franziska Aemisegger, Leonie Villiger, Sebastian A. Los, Gilles Reverdin, Estefanía Quiñones Meléndez, Claudia Acquistapace, Dariusz B. Baranowski, Tobias Böck, Sandrine Bony, Tobias Bordsdorff, Derek Coffman, Simon P. de Szoeke, Christopher J. Diekmann, Marina Dütsch, Benjamin Ertl, Joseph Galewsky, Dean Henze, Przemyslaw Makuch, David Noone, Patricia K. Quinn, Michael Rösch, Andreas Schneider, Matthias Schneider, Sabrina Speich, Bjorn Stevens, and Elizabeth J. Thompson
Earth Syst. Sci. Data, 15, 465–495, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-15-465-2023, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-15-465-2023, 2023
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One of the novel ways EUREC4A set out to investigate trade wind clouds and their coupling to the large-scale circulation was through an extensive network of isotopic measurements in water vapor, precipitation, and seawater. Samples were taken from the island of Barbados, from aboard two aircraft, and from aboard four ships. This paper describes the full collection of EUREC4A isotopic in situ data and guides readers to complementary remotely sensed water vapor isotope ratios.
Rainer Kiko, Marc Picheral, David Antoine, Marcel Babin, Léo Berline, Tristan Biard, Emmanuel Boss, Peter Brandt, Francois Carlotti, Svenja Christiansen, Laurent Coppola, Leandro de la Cruz, Emilie Diamond-Riquier, Xavier Durrieu de Madron, Amanda Elineau, Gabriel Gorsky, Lionel Guidi, Helena Hauss, Jean-Olivier Irisson, Lee Karp-Boss, Johannes Karstensen, Dong-gyun Kim, Rachel M. Lekanoff, Fabien Lombard, Rubens M. Lopes, Claudie Marec, Andrew M. P. McDonnell, Daniela Niemeyer, Margaux Noyon, Stephanie H. O'Daly, Mark D. Ohman, Jessica L. Pretty, Andreas Rogge, Sarah Searson, Masashi Shibata, Yuji Tanaka, Toste Tanhua, Jan Taucher, Emilia Trudnowska, Jessica S. Turner, Anya Waite, and Lars Stemmann
Earth Syst. Sci. Data, 14, 4315–4337, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-14-4315-2022, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-14-4315-2022, 2022
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The term
marine particlescomprises detrital aggregates; fecal pellets; bacterioplankton, phytoplankton and zooplankton; and even fish. Here, we present a global dataset that contains 8805 vertical particle size distribution profiles obtained with Underwater Vision Profiler 5 (UVP5) camera systems. These data are valuable to the scientific community, as they can be used to constrain important biogeochemical processes in the ocean, such as the flux of carbon to the deep sea.
Léa Olivier, Jacqueline Boutin, Gilles Reverdin, Nathalie Lefèvre, Peter Landschützer, Sabrina Speich, Johannes Karstensen, Matthieu Labaste, Christophe Noisel, Markus Ritschel, Tobias Steinhoff, and Rik Wanninkhof
Biogeosciences, 19, 2969–2988, https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-19-2969-2022, https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-19-2969-2022, 2022
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We investigate the impact of the interactions between eddies and the Amazon River plume on the CO2 air–sea fluxes to better characterize the ocean carbon sink in winter 2020. The region is a strong CO2 sink, previously underestimated by a factor of 10 due to a lack of data and understanding of the processes responsible for the variability in ocean carbon parameters. The CO2 absorption is mainly driven by freshwater from the Amazon entrained by eddies and by the winter seasonal cooling.
Jannes Koelling, Dariia Atamanchuk, Johannes Karstensen, Patricia Handmann, and Douglas W. R. Wallace
Biogeosciences, 19, 437–454, https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-19-437-2022, https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-19-437-2022, 2022
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In this study, we investigate oxygen variability in the deep western boundary current in the Labrador Sea from multiyear moored records. We estimate that about half of the oxygen taken up in the interior Labrador Sea by air–sea gas exchange during deep water formation is exported southward the same year. Our results underline the complexity of the oxygen uptake and export in the Labrador Sea and highlight the important role this region plays in supplying oxygen to the deep ocean.
Gerhard Fischer, Oscar E. Romero, Johannes Karstensen, Karl-Heinz Baumann, Nasrollah Moradi, Morten Iversen, Götz Ruhland, Marco Klann, and Arne Körtzinger
Biogeosciences, 18, 6479–6500, https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-18-6479-2021, https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-18-6479-2021, 2021
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Low-oxygen eddies in the eastern subtropical North Atlantic can form an oasis for phytoplankton growth. Here we report on particle flux dynamics at the oligotrophic Cape Verde Ocean Observatory. We observed consistent flux patterns during the passages of low-oxygen eddies. We found distinct flux peaks in late winter, clearly exceeding background fluxes. Our findings suggest that the low-oxygen eddies sequester higher organic carbon than expected for oligotrophic settings.
Bjorn Stevens, Sandrine Bony, David Farrell, Felix Ament, Alan Blyth, Christopher Fairall, Johannes Karstensen, Patricia K. Quinn, Sabrina Speich, Claudia Acquistapace, Franziska Aemisegger, Anna Lea Albright, Hugo Bellenger, Eberhard Bodenschatz, Kathy-Ann Caesar, Rebecca Chewitt-Lucas, Gijs de Boer, Julien Delanoë, Leif Denby, Florian Ewald, Benjamin Fildier, Marvin Forde, Geet George, Silke Gross, Martin Hagen, Andrea Hausold, Karen J. Heywood, Lutz Hirsch, Marek Jacob, Friedhelm Jansen, Stefan Kinne, Daniel Klocke, Tobias Kölling, Heike Konow, Marie Lothon, Wiebke Mohr, Ann Kristin Naumann, Louise Nuijens, Léa Olivier, Robert Pincus, Mira Pöhlker, Gilles Reverdin, Gregory Roberts, Sabrina Schnitt, Hauke Schulz, A. Pier Siebesma, Claudia Christine Stephan, Peter Sullivan, Ludovic Touzé-Peiffer, Jessica Vial, Raphaela Vogel, Paquita Zuidema, Nicola Alexander, Lyndon Alves, Sophian Arixi, Hamish Asmath, Gholamhossein Bagheri, Katharina Baier, Adriana Bailey, Dariusz Baranowski, Alexandre Baron, Sébastien Barrau, Paul A. Barrett, Frédéric Batier, Andreas Behrendt, Arne Bendinger, Florent Beucher, Sebastien Bigorre, Edmund Blades, Peter Blossey, Olivier Bock, Steven Böing, Pierre Bosser, Denis Bourras, Pascale Bouruet-Aubertot, Keith Bower, Pierre Branellec, Hubert Branger, Michal Brennek, Alan Brewer, Pierre-Etienne Brilouet, Björn Brügmann, Stefan A. Buehler, Elmo Burke, Ralph Burton, Radiance Calmer, Jean-Christophe Canonici, Xavier Carton, Gregory Cato Jr., Jude Andre Charles, Patrick Chazette, Yanxu Chen, Michal T. Chilinski, Thomas Choularton, Patrick Chuang, Shamal Clarke, Hugh Coe, Céline Cornet, Pierre Coutris, Fleur Couvreux, Susanne Crewell, Timothy Cronin, Zhiqiang Cui, Yannis Cuypers, Alton Daley, Gillian M. Damerell, Thibaut Dauhut, Hartwig Deneke, Jean-Philippe Desbios, Steffen Dörner, Sebastian Donner, Vincent Douet, Kyla Drushka, Marina Dütsch, André Ehrlich, Kerry Emanuel, Alexandros Emmanouilidis, Jean-Claude Etienne, Sheryl Etienne-Leblanc, Ghislain Faure, Graham Feingold, Luca Ferrero, Andreas Fix, Cyrille Flamant, Piotr Jacek Flatau, Gregory R. Foltz, Linda Forster, Iulian Furtuna, Alan Gadian, Joseph Galewsky, Martin Gallagher, Peter Gallimore, Cassandra Gaston, Chelle Gentemann, Nicolas Geyskens, Andreas Giez, John Gollop, Isabelle Gouirand, Christophe Gourbeyre, Dörte de Graaf, Geiske E. de Groot, Robert Grosz, Johannes Güttler, Manuel Gutleben, Kashawn Hall, George Harris, Kevin C. Helfer, Dean Henze, Calvert Herbert, Bruna Holanda, Antonio Ibanez-Landeta, Janet Intrieri, Suneil Iyer, Fabrice Julien, Heike Kalesse, Jan Kazil, Alexander Kellman, Abiel T. Kidane, Ulrike Kirchner, Marcus Klingebiel, Mareike Körner, Leslie Ann Kremper, Jan Kretzschmar, Ovid Krüger, Wojciech Kumala, Armin Kurz, Pierre L'Hégaret, Matthieu Labaste, Tom Lachlan-Cope, Arlene Laing, Peter Landschützer, Theresa Lang, Diego Lange, Ingo Lange, Clément Laplace, Gauke Lavik, Rémi Laxenaire, Caroline Le Bihan, Mason Leandro, Nathalie Lefevre, Marius Lena, Donald Lenschow, Qiang Li, Gary Lloyd, Sebastian Los, Niccolò Losi, Oscar Lovell, Christopher Luneau, Przemyslaw Makuch, Szymon Malinowski, Gaston Manta, Eleni Marinou, Nicholas Marsden, Sebastien Masson, Nicolas Maury, Bernhard Mayer, Margarette Mayers-Als, Christophe Mazel, Wayne McGeary, James C. McWilliams, Mario Mech, Melina Mehlmann, Agostino Niyonkuru Meroni, Theresa Mieslinger, Andreas Minikin, Peter Minnett, Gregor Möller, Yanmichel Morfa Avalos, Caroline Muller, Ionela Musat, Anna Napoli, Almuth Neuberger, Christophe Noisel, David Noone, Freja Nordsiek, Jakub L. Nowak, Lothar Oswald, Douglas J. Parker, Carolyn Peck, Renaud Person, Miriam Philippi, Albert Plueddemann, Christopher Pöhlker, Veronika Pörtge, Ulrich Pöschl, Lawrence Pologne, Michał Posyniak, Marc Prange, Estefanía Quiñones Meléndez, Jule Radtke, Karim Ramage, Jens Reimann, Lionel Renault, Klaus Reus, Ashford Reyes, Joachim Ribbe, Maximilian Ringel, Markus Ritschel, Cesar B. Rocha, Nicolas Rochetin, Johannes Röttenbacher, Callum Rollo, Haley Royer, Pauline Sadoulet, Leo Saffin, Sanola Sandiford, Irina Sandu, Michael Schäfer, Vera Schemann, Imke Schirmacher, Oliver Schlenczek, Jerome Schmidt, Marcel Schröder, Alfons Schwarzenboeck, Andrea Sealy, Christoph J. Senff, Ilya Serikov, Samkeyat Shohan, Elizabeth Siddle, Alexander Smirnov, Florian Späth, Branden Spooner, M. Katharina Stolla, Wojciech Szkółka, Simon P. de Szoeke, Stéphane Tarot, Eleni Tetoni, Elizabeth Thompson, Jim Thomson, Lorenzo Tomassini, Julien Totems, Alma Anna Ubele, Leonie Villiger, Jan von Arx, Thomas Wagner, Andi Walther, Ben Webber, Manfred Wendisch, Shanice Whitehall, Anton Wiltshire, Allison A. Wing, Martin Wirth, Jonathan Wiskandt, Kevin Wolf, Ludwig Worbes, Ethan Wright, Volker Wulfmeyer, Shanea Young, Chidong Zhang, Dongxiao Zhang, Florian Ziemen, Tobias Zinner, and Martin Zöger
Earth Syst. Sci. Data, 13, 4067–4119, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-13-4067-2021, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-13-4067-2021, 2021
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The EUREC4A field campaign, designed to test hypothesized mechanisms by which clouds respond to warming and benchmark next-generation Earth-system models, is presented. EUREC4A comprised roughly 5 weeks of measurements in the downstream winter trades of the North Atlantic – eastward and southeastward of Barbados. It was the first campaign that attempted to characterize the full range of processes and scales influencing trade wind clouds.
Pierre Bosser, Olivier Bock, Cyrille Flamant, Sandrine Bony, and Sabrina Speich
Earth Syst. Sci. Data, 13, 1499–1517, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-13-1499-2021, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-13-1499-2021, 2021
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In the framework of the EUREC4A campaign, water vapour measurements were retrieved over the tropical west Atlantic Ocean from GNSS data acquired from three research vessels (R/Vs Atalante, Maria S. Merian and Meteor). The retrievals from R/Vs Atalante and Meteor are shown to be of high quality unlike the results for the R/V Maria S. Merian. These ship-borne retrievals are intended to be used for the description and understanding of meteorological phenomena that occurred during the campaign.
Claudia Christine Stephan, Sabrina Schnitt, Hauke Schulz, Hugo Bellenger, Simon P. de Szoeke, Claudia Acquistapace, Katharina Baier, Thibaut Dauhut, Rémi Laxenaire, Yanmichel Morfa-Avalos, Renaud Person, Estefanía Quiñones Meléndez, Gholamhossein Bagheri, Tobias Böck, Alton Daley, Johannes Güttler, Kevin C. Helfer, Sebastian A. Los, Almuth Neuberger, Johannes Röttenbacher, Andreas Raeke, Maximilian Ringel, Markus Ritschel, Pauline Sadoulet, Imke Schirmacher, M. Katharina Stolla, Ethan Wright, Benjamin Charpentier, Alexis Doerenbecher, Richard Wilson, Friedhelm Jansen, Stefan Kinne, Gilles Reverdin, Sabrina Speich, Sandrine Bony, and Bjorn Stevens
Earth Syst. Sci. Data, 13, 491–514, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-13-491-2021, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-13-491-2021, 2021
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The EUREC4A field campaign took place in the western tropical Atlantic during January and February 2020. A total of 811 radiosondes, launched regularly (usually 4-hourly) from Barbados, and 4 ships measured wind, temperature, and relative humidity. They sampled atmospheric variability associated with different ocean surface conditions, synoptic variability, and mesoscale convective organization. The methods of data collection and post-processing for the radiosonde data are described here.
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Short summary
Mesoscale eddies are rotating oceanic currents key to ocean variability. Off Brazil’s northeast coast, the North Brazil Current generates on average 4.5 eddies per year, which drift towards the West Indies, transporting waters from the Southern Hemisphere. Using data collected at sea by the EUREC4A-OA cruise, this study reveals that deep eddies transport 5 times more water than surface ones, reshaping our understanding of the regional water transport.
Mesoscale eddies are rotating oceanic currents key to ocean variability. Off Brazil’s northeast...
