Up to What Extent Can We Characterize Ocean Eddies Using Present-Day Gridded Altimetric Products?
The most common methodology used to detect and characterize mesoscale eddies in the global ocean is to analyze altimetry-based sea-level gridded products with an automatic eddy detection and tracking algorithm. However, a careful look at the location of altimetry tracks shows that their separation i...
Published in: | Journal of Geophysical Research: Oceans |
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American Geophysical Union (AGU)
2018
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Online Access: | http://hdl.handle.net/10508/15052 https://agupubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdfdirect/10.1029/2018JC014140 https://doi.org/10.1029/2018JC014140 |
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ftieo:oai:repositorio.ieo.es:10508/15052 2023-06-11T04:14:51+02:00 Up to What Extent Can We Characterize Ocean Eddies Using Present-Day Gridded Altimetric Products? Amores, A. Jordá, G. (Gabriel) Arsouze, T. Le Sommer, J. 2018 http://hdl.handle.net/10508/15052 https://agupubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdfdirect/10.1029/2018JC014140 https://doi.org/10.1029/2018JC014140 eng eng American Geophysical Union (AGU) Sede Central IEO https://agupubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdfdirect/10.1029/2018JC014140 http://hdl.handle.net/10508/15052 doi:10.1029/2018JC014140 ©2018. American Geophysical Union. All Rights Reserved. open access research article 2018 ftieo https://doi.org/10.1029/2018JC014140 2023-05-02T23:49:30Z The most common methodology used to detect and characterize mesoscale eddies in the global ocean is to analyze altimetry-based sea-level gridded products with an automatic eddy detection and tracking algorithm. However, a careful look at the location of altimetry tracks shows that their separation is often larger than the Rossby radius of deformation. This implies that gridded products based on the information obtained along track would potentially be unable to characterize the mesoscale variability and, in particular, the eddy field. In this study, we analyze up to what extent sea-level gridded products are able to characterize mesoscale eddies with a special focus on the North Atlantic Ocean and the Mediterranean Sea. In order to perform this task, we have generated synthetic sea level anomaly maps using along-track data extracted from realistic high-resolution ocean model simulations and applying an optimal interpolation procedure. Then, we have used an eddy detection and tracking algorithm to the gridded synthetic product and to the original model outputs and compared the characteristics of the resulting eddy fields. Our results suggest that gridded products largely underestimate the density of eddies, capturing only between 6% and 16% of the total number of eddies. The main reason is that the spatial resolution of the gridded products is not enough to capture the small-scale eddies that are the most abundant. Also, the unresolved structures are aliased into larger structures in the gridded products, so those products show an unrealistic number of large eddies with overestimated amplitudes. Article in Journal/Newspaper North Atlantic Instituto Español de Oceanografía: e-IEO Journal of Geophysical Research: Oceans 123 10 7220 7236 |
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Instituto Español de Oceanografía: e-IEO |
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ftieo |
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English |
description |
The most common methodology used to detect and characterize mesoscale eddies in the global ocean is to analyze altimetry-based sea-level gridded products with an automatic eddy detection and tracking algorithm. However, a careful look at the location of altimetry tracks shows that their separation is often larger than the Rossby radius of deformation. This implies that gridded products based on the information obtained along track would potentially be unable to characterize the mesoscale variability and, in particular, the eddy field. In this study, we analyze up to what extent sea-level gridded products are able to characterize mesoscale eddies with a special focus on the North Atlantic Ocean and the Mediterranean Sea. In order to perform this task, we have generated synthetic sea level anomaly maps using along-track data extracted from realistic high-resolution ocean model simulations and applying an optimal interpolation procedure. Then, we have used an eddy detection and tracking algorithm to the gridded synthetic product and to the original model outputs and compared the characteristics of the resulting eddy fields. Our results suggest that gridded products largely underestimate the density of eddies, capturing only between 6% and 16% of the total number of eddies. The main reason is that the spatial resolution of the gridded products is not enough to capture the small-scale eddies that are the most abundant. Also, the unresolved structures are aliased into larger structures in the gridded products, so those products show an unrealistic number of large eddies with overestimated amplitudes. |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Amores, A. Jordá, G. (Gabriel) Arsouze, T. Le Sommer, J. |
spellingShingle |
Amores, A. Jordá, G. (Gabriel) Arsouze, T. Le Sommer, J. Up to What Extent Can We Characterize Ocean Eddies Using Present-Day Gridded Altimetric Products? |
author_facet |
Amores, A. Jordá, G. (Gabriel) Arsouze, T. Le Sommer, J. |
author_sort |
Amores, A. |
title |
Up to What Extent Can We Characterize Ocean Eddies Using Present-Day Gridded Altimetric Products? |
title_short |
Up to What Extent Can We Characterize Ocean Eddies Using Present-Day Gridded Altimetric Products? |
title_full |
Up to What Extent Can We Characterize Ocean Eddies Using Present-Day Gridded Altimetric Products? |
title_fullStr |
Up to What Extent Can We Characterize Ocean Eddies Using Present-Day Gridded Altimetric Products? |
title_full_unstemmed |
Up to What Extent Can We Characterize Ocean Eddies Using Present-Day Gridded Altimetric Products? |
title_sort |
up to what extent can we characterize ocean eddies using present-day gridded altimetric products? |
publisher |
American Geophysical Union (AGU) |
publishDate |
2018 |
url |
http://hdl.handle.net/10508/15052 https://agupubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdfdirect/10.1029/2018JC014140 https://doi.org/10.1029/2018JC014140 |
genre |
North Atlantic |
genre_facet |
North Atlantic |
op_relation |
https://agupubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdfdirect/10.1029/2018JC014140 http://hdl.handle.net/10508/15052 doi:10.1029/2018JC014140 |
op_rights |
©2018. American Geophysical Union. All Rights Reserved. open access |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.1029/2018JC014140 |
container_title |
Journal of Geophysical Research: Oceans |
container_volume |
123 |
container_issue |
10 |
container_start_page |
7220 |
op_container_end_page |
7236 |
_version_ |
1768371173682315264 |