Ivane Salaun

Title : Seasonal to interannual variability of the current near the Reykjanes Ridge and their vertical and horizontal structures 
Supervisers : Virginie Thierry (director) and Herlé Mercier (co-director)
Funding : IFREMER (50%), ARED IFREMER (50%)
Start date :  October 1st 2018
Keywords : large scale circulation, North-Atlantic Ocean, in situ data analysis, seasonal to interannual variability, current/topography interactions
Summary : As part of my PhD, I’m using data to study the circulation around and over the Reykajnes Ridge, a major topographic feature of the North-Atlantic Ocean lying south of Iceland influences the spatial distribution of the circulation and water masses of the subpolar gyre.
The objective of the PhD study is to document the seasonal to interannual variability of the flow near the ridge and their horizontal and vertical structures and to identify the mechanisms involved in the observed variability. The goals are to :
- identify the processes controlling the dynamical connections between the two sides of the ridge
-understand the respective roles of large, meso and small scale processes and current/topography interactions
-provide the necessary reference for the improvement of general circulation models in the region
 -understand the role of this ridge on the propagation of climatic anomalies that will likely influence the amplitude and the structure of the Meridional Overturning Cell that contributes to the meridional transport of heat and carbon in this ocean
Data : hydrographic data from the two RREX cruises conducted in 2015 and 2017, data from 7 moorings deployed for 2 years in the main current branches on both sides of the ridge, data (trajectories) from regular Argo floats drifting at 1000dbar and data from Deep-Argo floats drifting in the ISOW core (2100m), altimetric data.