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<front>
<journal-meta>
<journal-id journal-id-type="publisher">ESSDD</journal-id>
<journal-title-group>
<journal-title>Earth System Science Data Discussions</journal-title>
<abbrev-journal-title abbrev-type="publisher">ESSDD</abbrev-journal-title>
<abbrev-journal-title abbrev-type="nlm-ta">Earth Syst. Sci. Data Discuss.</abbrev-journal-title>
</journal-title-group>
<issn pub-type="epub">1866-3591</issn>
<publisher><publisher-name></publisher-name>
<publisher-loc>Göttingen, Germany</publisher-loc>
</publisher>
</journal-meta>
<article-meta>
<article-id pub-id-type="doi">10.5194/essd-2026-543</article-id>
<title-group>
<article-title>Geostrophic currents in the first 2000 m of the Mediterranean water column derived from Argo float data</article-title>
</title-group>
<contrib-group><contrib contrib-type="author" xlink:type="simple"><name name-style="western"><surname>Manimpire Gasana</surname>
<given-names>Elysee</given-names>
<ext-link>https://orcid.org/0009-0009-3415-8379</ext-link>
</name>
<xref ref-type="aff" rid="aff1">
<sup>1</sup>
</xref>
</contrib>
<contrib contrib-type="author" xlink:type="simple"><name name-style="western"><surname>Pirro</surname>
<given-names>Annunziata</given-names>
<ext-link>https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8320-6260</ext-link>
</name>
<xref ref-type="aff" rid="aff1">
<sup>1</sup>
</xref>
</contrib>
<contrib contrib-type="author" xlink:type="simple"><name name-style="western"><surname>Mauri</surname>
<given-names>Elena</given-names>
<ext-link>https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9602-0628</ext-link>
</name>
<xref ref-type="aff" rid="aff1">
<sup>1</sup>
</xref>
</contrib>
<contrib contrib-type="author" xlink:type="simple"><name name-style="western"><surname>Martellucci</surname>
<given-names>Riccardo</given-names>
<ext-link>https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7859-3967</ext-link>
</name>
<xref ref-type="aff" rid="aff1">
<sup>1</sup>
</xref>
</contrib>
<contrib contrib-type="author" xlink:type="simple"><name name-style="western"><surname>Gallo</surname>
<given-names>Antonella</given-names>
<ext-link>https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8836-1550</ext-link>
</name>
<xref ref-type="aff" rid="aff1">
<sup>1</sup>
</xref>
</contrib>
<contrib contrib-type="author" xlink:type="simple"><name name-style="western"><surname>Gacic</surname>
<given-names>Miroslav</given-names>
</name>
<xref ref-type="aff" rid="aff1">
<sup>1</sup>
</xref>
</contrib>
<contrib contrib-type="author" xlink:type="simple"><name name-style="western"><surname>Poulain</surname>
<given-names>Pierre-Marie</given-names>
<ext-link>https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1342-8463</ext-link>
</name>
<xref ref-type="aff" rid="aff1">
<sup>1</sup>
</xref>
</contrib>
<contrib contrib-type="author" xlink:type="simple"><name name-style="western"><surname>Menna</surname>
<given-names>Milena</given-names>
<ext-link>https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0149-0502</ext-link>
</name>
<xref ref-type="aff" rid="aff1">
<sup>1</sup>
</xref>
</contrib>
</contrib-group><aff id="aff1">
<label>1</label>
<addr-line>National Institute of Oceanography and Applied Geophysics (OGS), Borgo Grotta Gigante 42/c, Sgonico (TS), Italy</addr-line>
</aff>
<pub-date pub-type="epub">
<day>04</day>
<month>08</month>
<year>2026</year>
</pub-date>
<volume>2026</volume>
<fpage>1</fpage>
<lpage>23</lpage>
<permissions>
<copyright-statement>Copyright: &#x000a9; 2026 Elysee Manimpire Gasana et al.</copyright-statement>
<copyright-year>2026</copyright-year>
<license license-type="open-access">
<license-p>This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. To view a copy of this licence, visit <ext-link ext-link-type="uri"  xlink:href="https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/</ext-link></license-p>
</license>
</permissions>
<self-uri xlink:href="https://essd.copernicus.org/preprints/essd-2026-543/">This article is available from https://essd.copernicus.org/preprints/essd-2026-543/</self-uri>
<self-uri xlink:href="https://essd.copernicus.org/preprints/essd-2026-543/essd-2026-543.pdf">The full text article is available as a PDF file from https://essd.copernicus.org/preprints/essd-2026-543/essd-2026-543.pdf</self-uri>
<abstract>
<p>Extending satellite-derived surface velocities to depth in semi-enclosed basins such as the Mediterranean Sea remains challenging due to complex water mass interactions, constrained passages, and sensitivity of dynamic height calculations to numerical formulation. This study presents a three-dimensional geostrophic velocity dataset for the Mediterranean Sea (10&amp;ndash;2000 dbar, 0.5&amp;deg; &amp;times; 0.5&amp;deg;), derived from Argo float hydrography over 2001&amp;ndash;2024 period and referenced to satellite altimetry. A specific volume anomaly formulation is adopted for relative dynamic topography, removing the dominant hydrostatic background before vertical integration and eliminating spurious deep velocity amplification inherent to conventional specific-volume approaches. The reconstructed fields resolve basin-scale gyres, boundary currents, and mesoscale eddies across the Western, Central, and Eastern Mediterranean. Validation against Copernicus Marine Service reanalysis yields root mean square differences of ~1 cm s⁻&amp;sup1; above 500 dbar, decreasing to O(10⁻&amp;sup3;) cm s⁻&amp;sup1; at depth, with largest uncertainties in the intermediate layer (500&amp;ndash;1200 dbar) where water mass boundaries intensify thermohaline gradients. The dataset provides an observation-based, three-dimensional complement to model reanalyses and is publicly available at &lt;a href=&quot;https://doi.org/10.13120/q25v-q872&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot; rel=&quot;noopener&quot;&gt;https://doi.org/10.13120/q25v-q872&lt;/a&gt;.</p>
</abstract>
<counts><page-count count="23"/></counts>
<funding-group>
<award-group id="gs1">
<funding-source>Ministero dell&apos;Università e della Ricerca</funding-source>
<award-id>ARGO-ITALY</award-id>
</award-group>
</funding-group>
</article-meta>
</front>
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