Algerian Eddies lifetime can near 3 years

The Algerian Current (AC) is unstable and generates mesoscale meanders and eddies. Only anticyclonic eddies can develop and reach diameters over 200 km with vertical extents down to the bottom ( 3000 m). Algerian Eddies (AEs) first propagate eastward along the Algerian slope at few kilometers per day. In the vicinity of the Channel of Sardinia, a few AEs detach from the Algerian slope and propagate along the Sardinian one. It was hypothesized that AEs then followed a counter-clockwise circuit in the eastern part of the basin. Maximum recorded lifetimes were known to exceed 9 months. Within the framework of the 1-year Eddies and Leddies Interdisciplinary Study off Algeria (ELISA) experiment (1997–1998), we exhaustively tracked two AEs, using mainly an 3-year time series of NOAA/AVHRR satellite images. We show that AEs lifetimes can near 3 years, exceeding 33 months at least. We also confirm the long-lived AEs preferential circuit in the eastern part of the Algerian Basin, and specify that it may include several loops (at least three).