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2001 | Book

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Physical Oceanography of the Adriatic Sea

Past, Present and Future

Editors: Benoit Cushman-Roisin, Miroslav Gačić, Pierre-Marie Poulain, Antonio Artegiani

Publisher: Springer Netherlands

Included in: Professional Book Archive

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About this book

Because of its centrallocation in the Old World, the Adriatic Sea has long been explored and studied. Modern methods of investigation, however, have accelerated the pace of study during the last decade. These are the ADCP currentmeter, satellite imagery, drifter technology, and, last but not least, the computer with its arsenal of tools for data analysis and model simulations. As a result of this renaissance, the Adriatic Sea and its sub-basins are currently the object of intensified scrutiny by a number of scientific teams, in Europe and be­ yond. Questions concerning the mesoscale variability that dominates regional motions, the seasonal circulation of the sea, and its long-term climatic role in the broader Mediterranean, have become topics of lively discussions. The time was ripe then when an international workshop dedicated to the physical oceanography of the Adriatic Sea was convened in Trieste on 21-25 September 1998. Its objectives were to assess the current knowledge of the oceanography of the Adriatic Sea, to review the newly acquired observations, to create syn­ ergy between model simulations and observations, and to identify directions for future Adriatic oceanography. This book, however,is not the mere proceedings of the workshop. It was written as a monograph synthetizing the current knowledge of the physical oceanography of the Adriatic Sea, with the hope that it will serve as a reference to anyone interested in the Adriatic. The book also identifies topics in need of additional inquiry and proposes research directions for the next decade.

Table of Contents

Frontmatter
Chapter 1. Overview
Abstract
The Adriatic Sea received its name from ancient Greek geographers who named it after the city of Adria on the mouth of the Po River. It has a surface area of 138600 km2, a volume of 35000 km3, and its shape can be approximated as a rectangle about 800 km long and 200 km wide (Figure 1–1). Detailed knowledge of the geographic, bathymetric, orographic and climatic characteristics of the Adriatic Sea is basic to the understanding of its oceanographic properties. Several features, in particular, are key elements in controlling the circulation, water-mass characteristics and interactions with the rest of the Mediterranean Sea.
Miroslav Gačić, Pierre-Marie Poulain, Mira Zore-Armanda, Vittorio Barale
Chapter 2. Forcings
Abstract
As mentioned in Chapter 1, the Adriatic Sea is subject to highly variable atmospheric forcing due to its land-locked position between the mountainous Balkans and the Italian Peninsula. As a result, the oceanographic properties of the Adriatic, e.g., its circulation and the distribution of its water masses, depend strongly on the characteristics of the air-sea fluxes, more specifically on the fluxes of momentum, heat and water at the air-sea interface. Details about these fluxes are given below, after a summary of the climatic wind conditions over the Adriatic basin.
Pierre-Marie Poulain, Fabio Raicich
Chapter 3. Circulation
Abstract
Because of the central geo-political location of the Adriatic Sea in the Old World and of its importance for maritime commerce, the main features of the Adriatic Sea surface circulation have been qualitatively known for a long time, most likely since antiquity. Most of this information was acquired through navigation time or ship-drift estimates. In brief, the surface waters flow northwestward along the eastern coastline, reach the northern Adriatic and veer back to the Southeast following the Italian coast before outflowing through the Strait of Otranto. The picture is thus that of a single, basin-filling cyclonic (counterclockwise) gyre.
Pierre-Marie Poulain, Benoit Cushman-Roisin
Chapter 4. Adriatic Deep Water and Interaction with the Eastern Mediterranean Sea
Abstract
Being a dilution basin, the Adriatic Sea exports a relatively fresh water to the adjacent Ionian Sea. This water obviously must pass through the Strait of Otranto in the surface layer. In addition, the Adriatic loses heat every year, and the resulting buoyancy loss generates a dense water that has to be exported to the Ionian in the bottom layer of the Strait of Otranto. To balance these losses, a compensating flow brings more saline and warmer waters from the Eastern Mediterranean through the surface and intermediate layers. In sum, water exchange through the Strait of Otranto consists in three main components: the outflowing surface Adriatic water, the outflowing Adriatic Deep Water (ADW), and the inflowing more saline and warmer waters of Mediterranean origin.
Miroslav Gačić, Alexander Lascaratos, Beniamino B. Manca, Anneta Mantziafou
Chapter 5. Northern Adriatic Sea
Abstract
The northern Adriatic Sea is the northernmost region of the Mediterranean Sea, extending as far North as 45°47′N and bounded by the Italian peninsula to the West and the Balkans to the East (Figure 5–1). It is a shallow sub-basin of the Adriatic whose southern open boundary is arbitrarily taken as the 100-m isobath, approximately located North of 43°20′N. The northern and western coasts of the northern Adriatic are generally sandy, and the nearby land is flat (alluvial plains). In contrast, the eastern coast is rugged and mountainous, including numerous islands, inlets, bays and coves. Note that only the open northern Adriatic is considered in this chapter, excluding the waters enclosed by the northern Croatian islands (e.g., Rijeka Bay), which are discussed in section 6.3 of this book.
Pierre-Marie Poulain, Vassiliki H. Kourafalou, Benoit Cushman-Roisin
Chapter 6. Regional Studies
Abstract
A survey of past oceanographic activities in and around the Gulf of Trieste was compiled by Malačič (1993, 1995). The earliest hydrographc observation in the Gulf of Trieste probably dates back to 1703, when Edmund Halley, the famous astronomer who was also a navigator, geophysicist and oceanographer, was appointed to survey the state of the Adriatic ports in the Holy Roman Empire (Hook, 1984). His task was to sound the depths of the ports and to provide security in the event that an English fleet be sent to pass the winter in the northern Adriatic Sea in order to help push the Spanish troops out of the Italian peninsula. Hook (1984) describes Halley’s activities in detail, including a bathymetrie chart of the Port of Trieste created with the help of Count Strasoldi. Eventually, because the opening of the Gulf was deemed too wide (Figure 6–1), the Port of Bakar (now in Croatia) was recommended to shelter the British fleet. The political situation changed, and the English troops did not invade Italy until 1943.
Vlado Malačič, Boris Petelin, Miroslav Gačić, Antonio Artegiani, Mirko Orlić
Chapter 7. Tides, Seiches and Low-Frequency Oscillations
Abstract
Compared to the North Atlantic Ocean, tides in the Mediterranean Sea are relatively weak. The highest tide occurs in the Gulf of Gabes (along Tunisia), where the amplitude of the M2 tide reaches 51 cm, and the next highest tides are found in the northern Adriatic Sea (Defant, 1961; Tsimplis et al., 1995). Tidal elevations have been measured along the Adriatic since the Middle Ages, but continuous monitoring had to wait until the advent of modern instrumentation. Tides gauges were installed along the Adriatic shore quite early, although the majority did not remain in continuous operation, except those of Trieste (since 1859) and of Venice (since 1871). A network was eventually established in 1954. Long-time series of tidal elevations are therefore available.
Benoit Cushman-Roisin, Vlado Malačič, Miroslav Gačić
Chapter 8. Toward the Future
Abstract
Despite the advent of direct current observations by means of currentmeter moorings, ADCPs and drifters, studies of thermohaline properties and numerical modeling, the circulation of the Adriatic Sea remains somewhat elusive. One can state with confidence that the circulation is mostly cyclonic, with up to three closed cells (in the southern, middle and northern basins, respectively). This pattern emerges from all observations and all model simulations. Nonetheless, seasonal variations in both intensity and location of the coastal currents (Western Adriatic and Eastern Adriatic Currents) and of the gyres above the Middle and South Adriatic Pits are very significant. There are also some hints of seasonally varying anticyclonic circulation features, but their location and duration are far less certain than those of the cyclonic gyres. In-situ and remotely sensed data also reveal a significant degree of variability at time scales shorter than seasonal, of which the dynamics have yet to be fully explored.
Benoit Cushman-Roisin, Miroslav Gačić, Pierre-Marie Poulain, Antonio Artegiani
Backmatter
Metadata
Title
Physical Oceanography of the Adriatic Sea
Editors
Benoit Cushman-Roisin
Miroslav Gačić
Pierre-Marie Poulain
Antonio Artegiani
Copyright Year
2001
Publisher
Springer Netherlands
Electronic ISBN
978-94-015-9819-4
Print ISBN
978-90-481-5921-5
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-015-9819-4