Simulations of ARGO profilers and of surface floating objects: applications in MFSTEP

Abstract. In this work we describe part of the activities performed in the MFSTEP project by means of numerical simulations of ARGO profilers and surface floating objects. Simulations of ARGO floats were used to define the optimal time cycling in order to maximize independent observations of vertical profiles of temperature and salinity and to minimize the error on the estimate of the velocity at the parking depth of the profilers. Instead, the Mediterranean Forecasting System archive of Eulerian velocity field from 2000 to 2004 was used to build a related surface Lagrangian archive, systematically integrating numerical particles released and constrained to drift at surface. Here we use such Lagrangian archive to study the interannual variability of the surface Lagrangian transport in two key areas of the Western Mediterranean, also introducing an exponential decay in the particles concentration.