Articles UME

Abstract
Deep convection (DC) is a key-process of the oceanic circulation, costly to monitor in-situ and under the influence of climate change. Our study is a first step toward monitoring DC from space: we investigate the feasibility of observing its variability using improved satellite altimetry. An oceanic simulation of the Mediterranean circulation was performed for the [...]

Abstract
Water mass formation is classically estimated from the surface buoyancy flux using the method first developed by Walin (1982). This method provides an upper bound estimate for water mass formation that is inferred from the net surface heat flux over a given density range. Quite surprisingly the penetrative solar heat flux was not taken into [...]

Abstract
Assimilation of Argo float trajectories (350m parking depth) in a high resolution model of the Mediterranean Sea has been performed to test the importance of this type of data for operational systems. Starting from a state corresponding to the 28th year of the simulation, two experiments were performed, one with assimilation and one without, during [...]

Abstract
The paper compares ten different global precipitation data sets over the oceans and discusses their respective strengths and weaknesses in ocean regions where they are potentially important to the salinity and buoyancy budgets of surface waters. Data sets (acronyms of which are given in Section 2) are categorised according to their source of data, which [...]

Abstract
This is a study about the general circulation of the southwestern Mediterranean Sea based on observations of currents carried out in the southwestern Mediterranean Sea in the framework of the Mass Transfer and Ecosystem Response (MATER) program (EEC/MAST3 program). From July 1997 to August 2002, profiling floats (MEDPROF experiment), isobaric floats (LIWEX experiment), and moored [...]