Isabelle Dadou (LEGOS, France); Gwenaele Jan (eOdyn, France); Clement Le Goff (eOdyn, France); Yves Morel (LEGOS, France); Habib Micael Aguedjou (CNES, France); Louise Rousselet (LOCEAN/LEGOS, France)

The aim of this study is to characterize the meso and submesoscale dynamics in the western Mediterranean Sea with a focus on the Gulf of Lion. This region is dominated by a strong current where we can note the presence of strong fronts observed in the in situ data (i.e. ADCP or CTD) or high resolution model, not detected by the nadir altimetry data (e.g. Jason, Sentinel). We used the SWOT mission using the fast sampling phase to have access to the 2D Sea Level Anomalies (SLA) at fine scale. In this work, we used jointly the SWOT data and the AIS data (Automatic Identification System) to study the dynamics of the meso and submesoscale currents (O[2 - 5km]) in this region. The AIS data offer high spatio-temporal resolution of the total currents in coastal area and along the main maritime road across the ocean. So, it is unique data set, that can be combined with several data such as Chlrophyll_a or sea surface temperature, allows us to study the submesoscale dynamic in the area. We highlight that both SWOT or AIS data can detect and study a submesoscale event in coastal area. We then focus on one event and study its dynamical properties and the mechanism allowing its formation. Then, thanks to one year of AIS and 4 months of daily SWOT datasets, we analyze the recurrence of this kind of coastal submesoscale events and especially the new information gained with these two datasets.