Le courant Ligure au large de Nice

Off Nice, over a whole year, the Ligurian Current transports about 1.8 multiplied by 10 super(6) m super(3)/s of sea water between the coast and approximately 33 km offshore. A marked annual cycle, which appears off Nice and also through the Corsican channel (with maximum transport occurring in December and January and minimum in August and September), has been correlated with freshwater inputs from precipitation and river discharges, essentially the input from the River Arno. The upper layer of the Ligurian Current (0-250 m) has two components: a variable one forced by coastal freshwater, mainly originating in the Tyrrhenian Sea; and a more constant one, originating essentially in the Algero-Provencal basin. These findings strengthen the hypothesis of deep water formation forcing.