Comparison between current fields detected with infrared radiometry and modeled currents around Sweden

Abstract

The understanding of the relationship between surface currents derived from weather models and remote sensing data is essential in order to produce an improved and integrated surface current information of high quality and resolution. The large availability of satellite derived infrared radiometer data at the high latitudes of the coastal waters surrounding Sweden makes the Maximum Cross Correlation (MCC) method a feasible alternative to produce real time measurements of surface currents. This work compares current retrievals from the MCC method and model data around Sweden. Our results indicate a similar magnitude for both sources of current fields in most of the locations. However, there exist small discrepancies in the localization of the larger current values. Also, the MCC retrievals generally present more features than the modeled ones. Possible reasons for these discrepancies might be the MCC detection of circulation patterns not predicted by the model, or the depreciation in the MCC performance due to the influence of diurnal variability of the sea surface temperature, wind driven mixing due to upwelling or tides.