"MIWE"  --  
-- The Mediterranean Outflow Internal Waves Experiment

An exploratory observational process study
in the outflow from the Mediterranean Sea
in the Gulf of Cádiz west of the Strait of Gibraltar,
July 7-18, 2009, R/V García del Cid

In July 2009, we sailed on the Spanish research vessel García del Cid to a site in the eastern North Atlantic where salty and heavy water from the Mediterranean descends into the depths of the Atlantic.  To study the dynamics of the flow, we deployed two current meter moorings on the ocean floor and probed currents and stratification with a "lowered ADCP/CTD."

These pages explain a little bit about what we did and why we did it.  They also display some photographs from the cruise and from our travels.  A first report on our scientific results was presented at the 2010 Ocean Sciences Meeting in Portland, Oregon, and can be viewed here (2.4MB pdf file).

"We" means Jonathan Nash and colleagues from COAS / Oregon State University, José Pelegrí and colleagues from the Institute of Marine Sciences in Barcelona, Spain, and me, Hartmut Peters from Earth and Space Research in Seattle, Washington.  

mooring deployment

Even some of our oceanography colleagues might consider what we studied slightly esoteric. But it really isn't, and just takes time to explain.  The mostly short chapters listed below try to do that.

1)  The Outflow from the Mediterranean

2)  Outflows and Overflows and Climate

3)  Internal Waves - and Why They?

4)  The Cruise, Observations and Some First Results

5)  Travelogue
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Acknowledgements

The US-American part of MIWE was funded by the National Science Foundation of the USA.   Dr. Pelegrí and colleagues were funded by Spanish government agencies.  We are grateful to Captain Eduardo Otal and the crew of the García del Cid for their great work at sea and in port.  We thank the Kingdom of Morocco for permission to work in its exclusive economic zone.

sunset