Transformation of Levantine Intermediate Water tracked by MEDARGO floats in the Western Mediterranean

Abstract

A clustering methodology is applied to investigate the thermohaline structure of Levantine Intermediate Water (LIW) in the western Mediterranean basin. Sixteen free-drifting hydrographic profilers were deployed in the framework of the MFSTEP project (MEDARGO component) from September 2003. A total of 925 CTD profiles collected up to the beginning of February 2006 have been used in the analysis. The results are in good agreement with the general circulation scheme for intermediate waters in the basin and confirm the hypothesis about a "discrete-continuous" thermohaline structure of LIW.