Articles | Volume 21, issue 5
https://doi.org/10.5194/os-21-2169-2025
https://doi.org/10.5194/os-21-2169-2025
Research article
 | 
02 Oct 2025
Research article |  | 02 Oct 2025

Capturing dense shelf water cascading with a high-resolution ocean reanalysis

Helena Fos, Jesús Peña-Izquierdo, David Amblas, Marta Arjona-Camas, Laia Romero, Víctor Estella-Pérez, Cristian Florindo-Lopez, Antoni Calafat, Marc Cerdà-Domènech, Pere Puig, Xavier Durrieu de Madron, and Anna Sanchez-Vidal

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Dense shelf-water and associated sediment transport in the Cap de Creus Canyon and adjacent shelf under mild winter regimes: insights from the 2021–2022 winter
Marta Arjona-Camas, Xavier Durrieu de Madron, François Bourrin, Helena Fos, Anna Sanchez-Vidal, and David Amblas
EGUsphere, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2025-1310,https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2025-1310, 2025
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Cited articles

Arjona-Camas, M., Durrieu de Madron, X., Bourrin, F., Fos, H., Sanchez-Vidal, A., and Amblas, D.: Dense shelf-water and associated sediment transport in the Cap de Creus Canyon and adjacent shelf under mild winter regimes: insights from the 2021–2022 winter, EGUsphere [preprint], https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2025-1310, 2025. 
Béthoux, J. P., Durieu de Madron, X., Nyffeler, F., and Tailliez, D.: Deep water in the western Mediterranean: Peculiar 1999 and 2000 characteristics, shelf formation hypothesis, variability since 1970 and geochemical inferences, J. Mar. Syst. 33–34, 117–131, https://doi.org/10.1016/S0924-7963(02)00055-6, 2002. 
Canals, M., Puig, P., De Madron, X. D., Heussner, S., Palanques, A., and Fabres, J.: Flushing submarine canyons, Nature, 444, 354–357, https://doi.org/10.1038/nature05271, 2006. 
Dufau-Julliand, C., Marsaleix, P., Petrenko, A., and Dekeyser, I.: Three-dimensional modeling of the Gulf of Lion's hydrodynamics (northwest Mediterranean) during January 1999 (MOOGLI3 Experiment) and late winter 1999: Western Mediterranean Intermediate Water's (WIW's) formation and its cascading over the shelf break, J. Geophys. Res.-Oceans, 109, https://doi.org/10.1029/2003JC002019, 2004. 
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Short summary
Dense shelf water cascading (DSWC) is an oceanographic process where dense shelf water rapidly spills over the shelf edge and cascades into the deep ocean. Using a high-resolution model that incorporates real observations from the water column and sea surface (MedSea Reanalysis), this study compares over 30 years of simulated intense DSWC with actual observations in the NW Mediterranean. We identified all the intense cascading events since 1987, with results closely matching the observations.
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