GASTOM 90: acoustic tomography in the Bay of Biscay

Ocean acoustic tomography is a synoptic observation method of the internal structure of the ocean. In 1990, The French Service Oceanographique et Oceanographique de la Marine investigated the ability of acoustic tomography to infer the mesoscale circulation in the Bay of Biscay (in the northeast Atlantic Ocean). This paper shows some results of the tomography experiment concerning the oceanic circulation of the North Atlantic Central Waters (between 100 and 600 meters). A part of the work focus on the observation of two particular phenomena in the Bay of Biscay: eddies and internal tides. The GASTOM experiment put forward the main features of the oceanic circulation in the Bay of Biscay from the tomographic point of view