Forty years of geostrophic currents in the Ligurian Sea.

An analysis is made of the historical datasets covering almost 40 years (1976-2014) in the Ligurian Sea, in the North-Western Mediterranean. Two transects are studied: one at the boundary with the Tyrrhenian sea, in the Corsica Channel, the other between Nice on the French coast and Calvì on Corsica. The variability in the circulation patterns and changes in the hydrological properties of the water masses on seasonal and interannual time scales are investigated. For every cruise we chose the closest transect to the chosen ideal sections. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]