Potential use of microwave sea surface temperatures for the estimation of ocean currents - art. no. L24608

Type Article
Date 2006-12
Language English
Author(s) Isern-Fontanet Jordi1, 2, Chapron Bertrand2, Lapeyre Guillaume3, Klein Patrice1
Affiliation(s) 1 : IFREMER, Lab Phys Oceans, F-29280 Plouzane, France.
2 : IFREMER, Lab Oceanog Spatiale, F-29280 Plouzane, France.
3 : Ecole Normale Super, IPSL, Meteorol Dynam Lab, F-75231 Paris, France.
Source Geophysical Research Letters ( GRL ) (0094-8276) (American Geophysical Union), 2006-12 , Vol. 33 , N. 24 , P. NIL_11-NIL_15
DOI 10.1029/2006GL027801
WOS© Times Cited 88
Keyword(s) Microwave radiometers, Sea surface temperature, Surface quasi geostrophy
Abstract In this paper, we examine the emerging potential offered by satellite microwave radiometer SST measurements to complement altimeter data to quantitatively derive surface ocean currents. The proposed methodology does not follow standard sequential temporal analysis but follows the application of the Surface Quasi-Geostrophic (SQG) theory. Accordingly, under favourable environmental conditions, the implementation for this methodology is simple and robust, and most importantly, solely requires a single SST image. For the present demonstration, altimetric measurements are used to infer a necessary adjustment to match the kinetic energy level for length scales smaller than 300 km. This helps to derive a regional effective Brunt-Vaisala frequency to produce SQG surface current estimates. As demonstrated, the results are very encouraging and strongly invite to consider the systematic use of satellite microwave radiometer measurements.
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Isern-Fontanet Jordi, Chapron Bertrand, Lapeyre Guillaume, Klein Patrice (2006). Potential use of microwave sea surface temperatures for the estimation of ocean currents - art. no. L24608. Geophysical Research Letters ( GRL ), 33(24), NIL_11-NIL_15. Publisher's official version : https://doi.org/10.1029/2006GL027801 , Open Access version : https://archimer.ifremer.fr/doc/00000/2177/