Surface and interior dynamics of Arctic Seas using Surface Quasi-Geostrophic Approach

• Main Authors: Umbert, Marta, De Andrés, Eva, Gonçalves, Rafael, Gutiérrez-García, Marina, Raj, Roshin P., Bertino, Laurent, Gabarró, Carolina, Isern-Fontanet, Jordi
• Other Authors: European Commission, Ministerio de Ciencia, Innovación y Universidades (España), Agencia Estatal de Investigación (España), European Space Agency
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: Elsevier 2023
• Subjects: Ocean currents; Arctic; Ocean dynamics; Surface quasi-geostrophy; Sea surface height; Remote sensing; Physical oceanography; Arctic Ocean; Sea ice; Subarctic
• Online Access: http://hdl.handle.net/10261/288431; https://doi.org/10.13039/501100011033; https://doi.org/10.13039/501100000780; https://doi.org/10.13039/501100000844

This work represents a contribution to the CSIC Thematic Interdisciplinary Platform PTI-POLARCSIC and PTI-TELEDETECT.-- pages, 13 figures, 2 tables This study assesses the capability of Surface Quasi-Geostrophy (SQG) to reconstruct the three- dimensional (3D) dynamics in four critical areas of the Arctic Ocean: the Nordic, Barents, East Siberian, and Beaufort Seas. We first reconstruct the upper ocean dynamics from TOPAZ4 re- analysis of sea surface height (SSH), surface buoyancy (SSB), and surface velocities (SSV) and validate the results with the geostrophic and total TOPAZ4 velocities. The reconstruction of upper ocean dynamics using SSH fields is in high agreement with the geostrophic velocities, with correlation coefficients greater than 0.8 for the upper 400 m. SSH reconstructions outperform surface buoyancy reconstructions, even in places near freshwater inputs from river discharges, melting sea ice, and glaciers. Surface buoyancy fails due to the uncorrelation of SSB and subsurface potential vorticity (PV). Reconstruction from surface currents correlates to the total TOPAZ4 velocities with correlation coefficients greater than 0.6 up to 200 meters. Due to a lower stratification of the water column, the performance of the SQG approach is better in fall and winter than in the spring and summer. In the second part, we apply the SQG approach validated withthe reanalysis outputs to satellite-derived upper ocean currents and validate the results against in-situ measurements. Our results demonstrate that using surface information from SSH or surface velocities, combined with information on the stratification of the water column, it is possible to effectively reconstruct upper ocean dynamics in the Arctic and Subarctic Seas up to 400 meters. Future remote sensing missions in the Arctic Ocean, such as SWOT, Seastar, WaCM, CIMR, and CRISTAL, will produce enhanced SSH and surface velocities observations, allowing SQG schemes to characterize upper ocean 3D mesoscale dynamics up to 400 meters with higher resolution and ...