Implementation of the Optical Flow to Estimate the Propagation of Eddies in the South Atlantic Ocean
The ocean is filled with mesoscale eddies that account for most of the oceanic kinetic energy. The importance of eddies in transporting properties and energy across the ocean basins has led to numerous efforts to track their motion. Here, we implement a computer vision technique—the optical flow—to...
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ftmdpi:oai:mdpi.com:/2072-4292/15/15/3894/ 2023-09-05T13:15:20+02:00 Implementation of the Optical Flow to Estimate the Propagation of Eddies in the South Atlantic Ocean Denis L. Volkov Shahriar Negahdaripour agris 2023-08-07 application/pdf https://doi.org/10.3390/rs15153894 EN eng Multidisciplinary Digital Publishing Institute Ocean Remote Sensing https://dx.doi.org/10.3390/rs15153894 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ Remote Sensing; Volume 15; Issue 15; Pages: 3894 mesoscale eddies eddy propagation Rossby waves optical flow computer vision sea surface height satellite altimetry South Atlantic Ocean Text 2023 ftmdpi https://doi.org/10.3390/rs15153894 2023-08-13T23:51:41Z The ocean is filled with mesoscale eddies that account for most of the oceanic kinetic energy. The importance of eddies in transporting properties and energy across the ocean basins has led to numerous efforts to track their motion. Here, we implement a computer vision technique—the optical flow—to map the pathways of mesoscale eddies in the South Atlantic Ocean. The optical flow is applied to the pairs of consecutive sea surface height maps produced from a nearly 30-year-long satellite altimetry record. In contrast to other methods to estimate the eddy propagation velocity, the optical flow can reveal the temporal evolution of eddy motion, which is particularly useful in the regions of strong currents. We present the time-dependent estimates of the speed and direction of eddy propagation in the Eulerian frame of reference. In an excellent agreement with earlier studies, the obtained pattern of eddy propagation reveals the interaction of eddies with the background flow and the bottom topography. We show that in the Antarctic Circumpolar Current, the variability of the eddy propagation velocity is correlated with the variability of the surface geostrophic velocity, demonstrating the robustness of the optical flow to detect the time-variable part of eddy motion. Text Antarc* Antarctic South Atlantic Ocean MDPI Open Access Publishing Antarctic The Antarctic Remote Sensing 15 15 3894 |
institution |
Open Polar |
collection |
MDPI Open Access Publishing |
op_collection_id |
ftmdpi |
language |
English |
topic |
mesoscale eddies eddy propagation Rossby waves optical flow computer vision sea surface height satellite altimetry South Atlantic Ocean |
spellingShingle |
mesoscale eddies eddy propagation Rossby waves optical flow computer vision sea surface height satellite altimetry South Atlantic Ocean Denis L. Volkov Shahriar Negahdaripour Implementation of the Optical Flow to Estimate the Propagation of Eddies in the South Atlantic Ocean |
topic_facet |
mesoscale eddies eddy propagation Rossby waves optical flow computer vision sea surface height satellite altimetry South Atlantic Ocean |
description |
The ocean is filled with mesoscale eddies that account for most of the oceanic kinetic energy. The importance of eddies in transporting properties and energy across the ocean basins has led to numerous efforts to track their motion. Here, we implement a computer vision technique—the optical flow—to map the pathways of mesoscale eddies in the South Atlantic Ocean. The optical flow is applied to the pairs of consecutive sea surface height maps produced from a nearly 30-year-long satellite altimetry record. In contrast to other methods to estimate the eddy propagation velocity, the optical flow can reveal the temporal evolution of eddy motion, which is particularly useful in the regions of strong currents. We present the time-dependent estimates of the speed and direction of eddy propagation in the Eulerian frame of reference. In an excellent agreement with earlier studies, the obtained pattern of eddy propagation reveals the interaction of eddies with the background flow and the bottom topography. We show that in the Antarctic Circumpolar Current, the variability of the eddy propagation velocity is correlated with the variability of the surface geostrophic velocity, demonstrating the robustness of the optical flow to detect the time-variable part of eddy motion. |
format |
Text |
author |
Denis L. Volkov Shahriar Negahdaripour |
author_facet |
Denis L. Volkov Shahriar Negahdaripour |
author_sort |
Denis L. Volkov |
title |
Implementation of the Optical Flow to Estimate the Propagation of Eddies in the South Atlantic Ocean |
title_short |
Implementation of the Optical Flow to Estimate the Propagation of Eddies in the South Atlantic Ocean |
title_full |
Implementation of the Optical Flow to Estimate the Propagation of Eddies in the South Atlantic Ocean |
title_fullStr |
Implementation of the Optical Flow to Estimate the Propagation of Eddies in the South Atlantic Ocean |
title_full_unstemmed |
Implementation of the Optical Flow to Estimate the Propagation of Eddies in the South Atlantic Ocean |
title_sort |
implementation of the optical flow to estimate the propagation of eddies in the south atlantic ocean |
publisher |
Multidisciplinary Digital Publishing Institute |
publishDate |
2023 |
url |
https://doi.org/10.3390/rs15153894 |
op_coverage |
agris |
geographic |
Antarctic The Antarctic |
geographic_facet |
Antarctic The Antarctic |
genre |
Antarc* Antarctic South Atlantic Ocean |
genre_facet |
Antarc* Antarctic South Atlantic Ocean |
op_source |
Remote Sensing; Volume 15; Issue 15; Pages: 3894 |
op_relation |
Ocean Remote Sensing https://dx.doi.org/10.3390/rs15153894 |
op_rights |
https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.3390/rs15153894 |
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Remote Sensing |
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15 |
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15 |
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3894 |
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