Prospects for future satellite estimation of small-scale variability of ocean surface velocity and vorticity

Dudley B Chelton,Michael G Schlax,Roger M Samelson,J Thomas Farrar,M Jeroen Molemaker,James C Mcwilliams,Jonathan Gula

doi:10.1016/j.pocean.2018.10.012

Abstract

Prospects for future satellite estimation of small-scale variability of ocean surface velocity and vorticity

Highlights

Available global sea-surface height (SSH) fields constructed from satellite altimeter data by Collecte Localis Satellites (CLS) and archived by Archivage, Validation, Interpretation des donnees des Satellite Oceanographiques (AVISO) are able to resolve time scales of about a month and wavelength scales of about 200 km, corresponding to feature radius scales of about 50 km
Notwithstanding the many successful applications of this dataset, it is clear from high-resolution numerical simulations and satellite infrared and visible observations of sea surface temperature (SST) and ocean chlorophyll that energetic variability exists on smaller scales than can be resolved by the CLS/AVISO SSH fields
To assess the scientific benefits of higher resolution maps, we extended the analyses of Secs. 6, 8.4, 8.5 and 10.1 to determine the resolution capabilities of maps of velocity and vorticity constructed from simulated Winds and Currents Mission (WaCM) data with smaller uncorrelated measurement errors

Summary

Introduction

Available global sea-surface height (SSH) fields constructed from satellite altimeter data by Collecte Localis Satellites (CLS) and archived by Archivage, Validation, Interpretation des donnees des Satellite Oceanographiques (AVISO) are able to resolve time scales of about a month and wavelength scales of about 200 km, corresponding to feature radius scales of about 50 km (see Appendix A.3 of Chelton et al, 2011). The 25+ year CLS/AVISO record of SSH fields (Pujol et al, 2016) has been extremely useful for studies of mesoscale eddies, large-scale ocean circulation variability and sea level rise (e.g., Fu et al, 2010; Lee et al, 2010; Willis et al, 2010; Chelton et al, 2011). Notwithstanding the many successful applications of this dataset, it is clear from high-resolution numerical simulations and satellite infrared and visible observations of sea surface temperature (SST) and ocean chlorophyll that energetic variability exists on smaller scales than can be resolved by the CLS/AVISO SSH fields. The objective of this study is to investigate the prospects for future high-resolution satellite measurements of small-scale velocity and vorticity variability

Objectives

Findings

Discussion

Conclusion