Characterization of the Atlantic Water and Levantine Intermediate Water in the Mediterranean Sea using 20 years of Argo data

Abstract. Atlantic Water (AW) and Levantine Intermediate (LIW) are important water masses that play a crucial role in the internal variability of Mediterranean thermohaline circulation. To be more specific, their interaction, along with other characterize basin, such as Western Deep (WMDW), contribute to modify Outflow through Strait Gibraltar, hence they may influence stability global This work aims AW LIW Sea, taking advantage large observational dataset (freely available on https://argo.ucsd.edu, https://www.ocean-ops.org, last access: 17 January 2022; Wong et al., 2020) provided by Argo floats from 2001 2019. were identified using different diagnostic methods, highlighting inter-basin strong zonal gradient both denote two this marginal sea. Their temporal was also investigated over 2 decades, providing robust view characteristics, which have only been very short periods previous studies due lack data. A clear salinification warming trend decades (∼ 0.007 ± 0.140 0.006 0.038 yr−1; 0.026 0.715 0.022 0.232 ∘C yr−1, respectively). The salinity temperature trends found at sub-basin scale good agreement results. strongest Adriatic basin properties LIW.