Articles | Volume 11, issue 2
https://doi.org/10.5194/gi-11-359-2022
https://doi.org/10.5194/gi-11-359-2022
Research article
 | 
25 Oct 2022
Research article |  | 25 Oct 2022

Glider observations of thermohaline staircases in the tropical North Atlantic using an automated classifier

Callum Rollo, Karen J. Heywood, and Rob A. Hall

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Argo: Argo float data and metadata from Global Data Assembly Centre, Argo GDAC [data set], https://doi.org/10.17882/42182, 2021. a
Bryden, H. L., Schroeder, K., Sparnocchia, S., Borghini, M., and Vetrano, A.: Thermohaline staircases in the western Mediterranean Sea, J. Marine Res., 72, 1–18, https://doi.org/10.1357/002224014812655198, 2014. a, b
Buffett, G. G., Krahmann, G., Klaeschen, D., Schroeder, K., Sallarès, V., Papenberg, C., Ranero, C. R., and Zitellini, N.: Seismic Oceanography in the Tyrrhenian Sea: Thermohaline Staircases, Eddies, and Internal Waves, J. Geophys. Res.-Oceans, 122, 8503–8523, https://doi.org/10.1002/2017JC012726, 2017. a, b, c, d, e, f
Durante, S., Schroeder, K., Mazzei, L., Pierini, S., Borghini, M., and Sparnocchia, S.: Permanent Thermohaline Staircases in the Tyrrhenian Sea, Geophys. Res. Lett., 46, 1562–1570, https://doi.org/10.1029/2018GL081747, 2019. a, b
Durante, S., Oliveri, P., Nair, R., and Sparnocchia, S.: Mixing in the Tyrrhenian Interior Due to Thermohaline Staircases, Front. Mar. Sci., 8, 672437, https://doi.org/10.3389/fmars.2021.672437, 2021. a, b
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Short summary
Using an underwater buoyancy-powered autonomous glider, we collected profiles of temperature and salinity from the ocean north-east of Barbados. Most of the temperature and salinity profiles contained staircase-like structures of alternating constant values and large gradients. We wrote an algorithm to identify these staircases. We hypothesise that these staircases are prevented from forming where background gradients in temperature and salinity are too great.