Circulation and winter deep-water formation in the northern Red Sea*

Abstract

Water mass characteristics and circulation patterns in the Gulf of Aqaba and northern Red Sea were studied for the first time during the r/v ‘Meteor’ cruise leg 44/2 from February 21st to March 7th 1999 using temperature-salinity profiles and current observations. The deep water in the northern Red Sea had similar characteristics to the well-mixed upper 450 m of water in the Gulf of Aqaba. * This study was funded by the German Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) and the cruise was funded by the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (German Science Foundation) under the leadership of the Red Sea Program (RSP). The complete text of the paper is available at http://www.iopan.gda.pl/oceanologia/