under a Creative Commons License. Ocean Science Temporal and spatial characteristics of sea surface height variability in the North Atlantic Ocean
Abstract. We investigate the spatial and temporal variability of sea surface height (SSH) in the North Atlantic basin using satellite altimeter data from October 1992–January 2004. Our primary aim is to provide a detailed description of such variability, including that associated with propagating si...
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| Language: | English |
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2006
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| Online Access: | http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/summary?doi=10.1.1.382.7867 http://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/docs/00/29/82/92/PDF/os-2-147-2006.pdf |
| Summary: | Abstract. We investigate the spatial and temporal variability of sea surface height (SSH) in the North Atlantic basin using satellite altimeter data from October 1992–January 2004. Our primary aim is to provide a detailed description of such variability, including that associated with propagating signals. We also investigate possible correlations between SSH variability and atmospheric pressure changes as represented by climate indices. We first investigate interannual SSH variations by deriving the complex empirical orthogonal functions (CEOFs) of altimeter data lowpass-filtered at 18 months. We determine the spatial structure of the leading four modes (both in amplitude and phase) and also the associated principal component (PC) time series. Using wavelet analysis we derive the time-varying spectral density of the PCs, revealing when particular |
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