Current Circulation in the Ligurian Sea

Abstract Observation of the circulation in the Ligurian Sea have generally been inferred indirectly from the field of mass, while few observational data gathered by moored currentmeters can be found in the literature. The cyclonic circulation seems to be forced by the wind stress that imparts vorticity (curl of the wind stress) to the sea. Inparticular, a southerly wind seems to cause a coastal countercurrent in the Gulf o f Genova. A special attention deserves the interaction between the Ligurian Sea and the Tyrrhenian Sea, since the data collected on the shelf during Spring 1979 showed asignificant coherence of the alongshore current only at about l cpd.