Meddies and sub-surface eddies
Document Type
Article
Date of Original Version
1-1-2019
Abstract
Meddies and related types of circular motion in the ocean belong to a class of eddies characterized by a highly coherent, axisymmetric circulation in the horizontal plane. These stable features have a lifetime from months to years, during which time they may drift thousands of kilometers, carrying with them waters from where they were formed. They play an important, but as yet inadequately defined and quantified, role in the transport and exchange of water properties between different regions. Understanding these processes is of fundamental importance for a correct characterization of subsurface eddy processes in the ocean and their representation or parametrization in ocean circulation models.
Publication Title, e.g., Journal
Encyclopedia of Ocean Sciences
Citation/Publisher Attribution
Bower, Amy S., and H. T. Rossby. "Meddies and sub-surface eddies." Encyclopedia of Ocean Sciences (2019). doi: 10.1016/B978-0-12-409548-9.11338-7.