PROTEVS-MED field experiments: Very High Resolution Hydrographic Surveys in the Western Mediterranean Sea

From 2015 to 2018 five field experiments (9 legs) have been performed in the Western Mediterranean Basin during winter or early spring. Thanks to the intensive use of a towed vehicle undulating in the upper oceanic layer between 0 and 400 meter depth (i.e. a Seasoar), a large amount of very high resolution hydrographic transects have been performed, to measure the mesoscale dynamics (slope current and its instabilities, anticyclonic eddies, sub-mesoscale coherent vortices, frontal dynamics convection events, strait outflows) and sub-mesoscale processes like stirring, mixed layer or symmetric instabilities. When available, the data were completed with velocities recorded by Vessel Mounted Acoustic Doppler Current Profiler (VMADCP) and by surface salinity and temperature recorded by ThermosalinoGraph (TSG). Some CTD casts have also been performed giving the background hydrography of the deep layers. In 2017, a Moving Vessel Profiler (MVP) has been deployed to manage even higher horizontal resolution. This data set is an unprecedented opportunity to investigate the very fine scale processes as the Mediterranean Sea is known for its intense and contrasted dynamics. It should be useful for modellers (who reduce the grid size below a few hundred meters) and expect to properly catch finer scale dynamics. Likewise, theoretical work could also be illustrated by in situ evidence embedded in this data set.