The upper layer circulation of the Black Sea - Its variability as inferred from hydrographic and satellite observations

Quasi-synoptic hydrographic data and satellite imagery are used to describe the circulation and the structural variability of the Black Sea with particular emphasis on the Turkish coast. The circulation is indicated to involve a variable cyclonic circulation with no apparent central locus and a well-defined cyclonic 'Rim Current' containing meanders and interacting eddy fields confined to the shelf slope. Interspersed between the coastal eddies are filaments and intense jets, often with dipole eddies at their termina. The extension of these features across the shelf-slope into the central basin offshore waters implies important dynamical processes related to the shell-deep basin exchanges. These features are often steered by the topography and evolve continuously through the mixed baroclinic-barotropic instability of the Rim Current.