TY - JOUR T1 - Gyroscopic waves in the Mediterranean Sea A1 - Van Haren,H A1 - Millot,C AD - Netherlands Inst Sea Res, NL-1790 AB Den Burg, Netherlands. AD - IFREMER, LOB COM CNRS, F-83507 La Seyne Sur Mer, France. UR - https://archimer.ifremer.fr/doc/00000/932/ DO - 10.1029/2005GL023915 N2 - In the ocean outside areas of dense-water formation, coherent vertical motions (w) are generally much weaker (similar to 10(-3)) than horizontal (u, v) ones. According to theoretical models based upon "the traditional approximation", i.e. where the horizontal component of the Coriolis force is neglected, describing inertio-gravity waves in the ocean interior, this holds especially for motions at the inertial frequency f: w(f) < O(10(-2)(u(f), v(f))). We present observations of significant w(f), with mean values of 10(-1)(u(f), v(f)) and occasional values of 1(u(f), v(f)), from the deep Western Mediterranean Sea characterized by very small buoyancy frequency N = 0 +/- 0.4f. Our observations also present evidence of vertical propagation of internal waves, originated in the near-surface density stratified layers, through homogeneous layers below. The observations could be interpreted only within the framework of "non-traditional approach" with the horizontal component of the Coriolis force fully taken into account. Y1 - 2005/12 PB - Amer Geophysical Union JF - Geophysical Research Letters SN - 0094-8276 VL - 32 IS - 24 ID - 932 ER -