Articles | Volume 12, issue 3
https://doi.org/10.5194/os-12-663-2016
https://doi.org/10.5194/os-12-663-2016
Research article
 | 
13 May 2016
Research article |  | 13 May 2016

Occurrence and characteristics of mesoscale eddies in the tropical northeastern Atlantic Ocean

Florian Schütte, Peter Brandt, and Johannes Karstensen

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Cited articles

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Short summary
We want to examine the characteristics of mesoscale eddies in the tropical northeastern Atlantic. They serve as transport agents, exporting water from the coast into the open ocean. Traditionally eddies are categorized with respect to their rotation: cyclonic and anticyclonic. But we could identify, with a combination of different satellite products, a third type called "anticyclonic mode-water eddy" transporting much larger anomalies. We propose a distinction into three classes for further studies.