Twenty‐five years of satellite altimetry Sea Level Anomaly (SLA) and SLA‐derived eddy trajectories are used for a thorough characterization of the Azores Current (AzC) eddies' kinematic properties (i.e., amplitude, radius, and swirl velocity) and evolution above the Mid Atlantic Ridge (MAR) and the Seewarte seamount chain (around 28°W). Changes in the mean flow kinetic energy and eddy kinetic energy (EKE) along the AzC main axis (around 34.2°N) allow to divide its zonal structure into three sectors: The western one, between the MAR and 28°W, the central, until 24°W and the eastern, between 24°W and 20°W. A clear intensification of the western sector is visible in both distribution maps, as well in the median, Skewness, and Kurtosis of the SLA field. Two main patterns of the SLA turbulent field also emerge from the statistical analysis: a meridional asymmetry around the current mean axis and a zonal one. The kinematic properties of the detected eddies clearly demonstrate that cyclones are more intense and non‐linear than anticyclones, mainly in the western region, exhibiting higher values of EKE. High amplitude cyclones reported in several papers of the area (with a time‐mean amplitude above 16 cm) are rarities, with only six cyclones detected in the 25 years of data.

中文翻译：

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亚速尔群岛洋流系统的湍流结构：统计分析

二十五年的卫星测高仪海平面异常（SLA）和SLA衍生的涡流轨迹用于全面表征亚速尔群岛海流（AzC）涡流的运动学特性（即，振幅，半径和旋流速度）及其演化中大西洋海脊（MAR）和Seewarte海山链（约28°W）。沿AzC主轴（约34.2°N）的平均流动动能和涡动能（EKE）的变化允许将其带状结构划分为三个部分：西部，MAR和28°W之间，中央，直到24°W和东部，介于24°W和20°W之间。在两个分布图中，以及在SLA领域的中位数，偏度和峰度中，都可以清楚地看到西部地区的加剧趋势。统计分析还得出了SLA湍流场的两种主要模式：围绕当前平均轴的子午不对称和纬向不对称。所检测到的涡流的运动学性质清楚地表明，旋风分离器比反旋风分离器更强，更非线性，主要在西部地区，表现出较高的EKE值。在该地区的几篇论文中报道的高振幅气旋（时间平均振幅在16 cm以上）是罕见的，在25年的数据中仅检测到6个气旋。