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Through such mechanism eddy pumping generates upwelling of cold, nutrient rich deep waters in cyclonic eddies and downwelling of warm, nutrient poor, surface water in anticyclonic eddies. Conceptual description of the effect on the pycnocline and the vertical transport, as an anticyclonic eddy intensifies and destructs.
The sense of rotation of these currents may either be cyclonic or anticyclonic (such as Haida Eddies). Oceanic eddies are also usually made of water masses that are different from those outside the eddy. That is, the water within an eddy usually has different temperature and salinity characteristics to the water outside the eddy.
The high central hydrostatic pressure maintained by this rotation causes the downwelling of water and the depression of isopycnals - surfaces of constant density (see Eddy pumping) at scales of hundreds of meters per year. [8] The typical result is a deeper surface layer of warm water often characterized by low primary production. [9] [10]
Spring blooms are caused by sufficient light reaching the warm, nutrient-rich water contained in the middle of the eddy, due to anticyclonic rotation. A second bloom can occur once the eddy has moved closer to the deep ocean, when the outer reaches of the eddy can gather nutrient-rich water from either the coast or from an adjacent eddy.
The SSH in both anticyclonic and cyclonic decreases and increases, respectively, as the distance from the center increases. [23] Upwelling and downwelling processes in the eddies create a cold and warm core. [24] Downwelling in the anticyclonic eddy prevents colder water from entering the surface, thus creating a warm-core in the center.
It is an apparent permanent anticyclonic eddy, whose persistence has been documented in the past years by shipborne, [7] Seagliders [8] and satellite measurements. The estimated radius of the vortex is 15–20 km and presents a 1200 m thick core of Atlantic Water (warm and saline) swirling at velocities that reach 0.8 m/s at 600–800 m depth.
Variations in the Ekman transport change the sea surface height and depth of the halocline, resulting in Ekman pumping. During anticyclonic regimes—where the wind stress curl is negative—freshwater is pumped into the Beaufort Gyre; during cyclonic regimes—where wind stress curl is positive—freshwater is released into the Arctic Ocean ...
There would be perfect eddy compensation when the Ekman transport would be balanced by eddy-induced transport. [6] There is a widespread belief that the sensitivities of the transport in the ACC and MOC are dynamically linked. However, note that eddy saturation and eddy compensation are distinct dynamical mechanisms.