Oceanographic applications of scatterometer data in the Mediterranean Sea

The paper presents an example of oceanographic applications of ADEOS NSCAT scatterometer minds in the central Mediterranean Sea (2-20 E, 35 46 N). Focusing on winter 1996-1997 and spring 1997, the relationships among the oceanic features revealed by the seasonal mean sea surface temperature (SST) field, the scatterometer derived Ekman pumping vertical velocity w(ek) and total heat flux fields Q(t) have been discussed. Despite the approximations in the calculation of the above mean fields, the results show important and permanent correlations between the SST and w(ek) in the Gulf of Lion, in the Gulf of Geneva and in the northern Tyrrhenian Sea, East of the Bonifacio Strait (6-11 E, 40-42 N). The total heat flux and the SST fields appear instead uncorrelated. While in the northern Tyrrhenian Sea the correlation confirms the wind induced nature of the cyclonic circulation present in this area and the important role played by the funnelling effect induced by the Bonifacio Strait under eastward wind flows, the relationship in the Gulfs of Lion and Geneva is of more complicated interpretation, since this area is characterised by a permanent westward circulation and by a cyclonic circulation which is not known if permanent or seasonal. However, the correlation found between SST and w(ek) in all the seasons analysed included the autumn 1996 (not shown here), indicates a permanent or quasi permanent atmospheric contribution to the water upwelling in this area.