Aviv Solodoch

• PhD
• Senior Lecturer at Hebrew University of Jerusalem

We examined the probability density function (pdf) of current speeds in the Eastern Mediterranean Sea, near the central coast of Israel. The currents cover depths from the surface to over 1.3 km and span a period from November 2016 to March 2024. We estimated the parameters of three typical distributions that are usually used to model the pdfs of c...

Sea surface wave spectrum measurements are necessary for a host of basic research questions as well as for engineering and societal needs. However, most measurement techniques require great investment in infrastructure and time-intensive deployment techniques. We propose a new approach of wave measurement from standard video footage recorded by low...

Antarctic Bottom Water (AABW) formation and transport constitute a key component of the global ocean circulation. Direct observations suggest that AABW volumes and transport rates may be decreasing, but these observations are too temporally or spatially sparse to determine the cause. To address this problem, we develop a new method to reconstruct A...

Seasonal variability and the effect of bottom interaction on the dynamics of the along-slope boundary current flowing around the Levantine basin are investigated using nested high-resolution simulations of the Eastern Mediterranean Sea. The numerical solutions show a persistent boundary current year-round that is ≈ 60 km wide and ≈ 200 m deep. An e...

Eastern Boundary Upwelling Systems (EBUSs) host equatorward wind-driven near-surface currents overlying poleward subsurface undercurrents. Various previous theories for these undercurrents have emphasized the role of poleward alongshore pressure gradient forces (APF). Energetic mesoscale variability may also serve to accelerate undercurrents via me...

Having a profound influence on marine and coastal environments worldwide, jellyfish hold significant scientific, economic, and public interest. The predictability of outbreaks and dispersion of jellyfish is limited by a fundamental gap in our understanding of their movement. Although there is evidence that jellyfish may actively affect their positi...

The large seasonal increase in marine photosynthetic organisms - i.e., phytoplankton bloom - is a ubiquitous oceanic phenomenon that contributes to the removal of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and that supports the growth and development of larger organisms throughout the marine ecosystem. The underlying mechanisms controlling the intensity an...

Antarctic Bottom Water (AABW) formation and transport constitute a key component of the global ocean circulation. Direct observations suggest that AABW volumes and transport rates may be decreasing, but these observations are too temporally or spatially sparse to determine the cause. To address this problem, we develop a new method to reconstruct A...

Sea surface wave spectrum measurements are necessary for a host of basic research questions as well as for engineering and societal needs. However, most measurement techniques require great investment in infrastructure and time-intensive deployment techniques. We propose a new approach of wave measurement from standard video footage recorded by low...

The East Mediterranean Sea (EMS) circulation has previously been characterized as dominated by gyres, mesoscale eddies, and disjoint boundary currents. We develop nested high-resolution numerical simulations in the EMS to examine the circulation variability with an emphasis on the yet unexplored regional submesoscale currents. Rather than several d...

The oceanic Meridional Overturning Circulation (MOC) plays a key role in the climate system, and monitoring its evolution is a scientific priority. Monitoring arrays have been established at several latitudes in the Atlantic Ocean, but other latitudes and oceans remain unmonitored for logistical reasons. This study explores the possibility of infer...

It is now well established that changes in the zonal wind stress over the ACC do not lead to changes in its baroclinicity nor baroclinic transport, a phenomenon referred to as “eddy saturation”. Previous studies provide contrasting dynamical mechanisms for this phenomenon: on one extreme, changes in the winds lead to changes the efficiency with whi...

Plain Language Summary Cooling, ice formation, and mixing near Antarctica create dense ocean waters, known as Antarctic Bottom Water (AABW). Due to their high density, these waters sink and propagate northward to fill the deepest parts of the Southern, Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic Oceans. Hence AABW export has a significant and near‐global impact...

Plain Language Summary Antarctic Bottom Water (AABW) is the densest major body of water in the world ocean, flowing out from Antarctica and filling over one‐third of the global subsurface. AABW has several key functions in the climate system, particularly for climate variability over centuries to millennia. However, current observing and simulation...

Previous studies have concluded that the wind-input vorticity in ocean gyres is balanced by bottom pressure torques (BPT), when integrated over latitude bands. However, the BPT must vanish when integrated over any area enclosed by an isobath. This constraint raises ambiguities regarding the regions over which BPT should close the vorticity budget,...

Long-lived anticyclonic eddies (ACs) have been repeatedly observed over several North Atlantic basins characterized by bowl-like topographic depressions. Motivated by these previous findings, the authors conduct numerical simulations of the spin-down of eddies initialized in idealized topographic bowls. In experiments with 1 or 2 isopycnal layers,...

The southward flowing deep limb of the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation is comprised of both the Deep Western Boundary Current (DWBC) and interior pathways. The latter are fed by “leakiness” from the DWBC in the Newfoundland Basin. However, the cause of this leakiness has not yet been explored mechanistically. Here the statistics and dyn...

We present in-situ and remote observations of a Mississippi plume front in the Louisiana bight. The plume propagated freely across the bight, rather than as a coastal current. The observed cross-front circulation pattern is typical of density currents, as are the small width (≈ 100 m) of the plume front, and the presence of surface frontal converge...

Observations and models of deep ocean boundary currents show that they exhibit complex variability, instabilities and eddy shedding, particularly over continental slopes that curve horizontally, for example around coastal peninsulas. In this article the authors investigate the source of this variability by characterizing the properties of baroclini...

A mechanism is presented, based on multiscale interactions via nonlinear wind-induced surface heat exchange (WISHE), that produces eastward-propagating, intraseasonal convective anomalies in the tropical atmosphere. Simulations of convectively coupled disturbances are presented in two intermediate-complexity atmospheric models. One is a shallow wat...

The intraseasonal Madden-Julian oscillation (MJO) involves a slow eastward-propagating signal in the tropical atmosphere which significantly influences climate yet is not well understood despite significant theoretical and observational progress. We study the atmosphere's response to nonlinear "Wind Induced Surface Heat Exchange" (WISHE) forcing in...