Ocean Circulation from Space:An Overview
Sarah Gille
Scripps Institution of Oceanography
and Department of Mechanical and
Aerospace Engineering
UCSD, La Jolla, CA
Jason Altimeter
Focusing on the Gulf Stream
• Loop Current and Hurricane In-tensification: Altimetry, SST,Scatterometry
• Gulf Stream Variability: SST andAltimetry
• Gulf Stream Measured MeanFlow: GRACE and Altimetry
www.rsmas.miami.edu/gifs
Loop Current from Altimetry
http://argo.colorado.edu/∼realtime/welcome/
Loop Current Heat More than Skin Deep
http://www.aoml.noaa.gov/phod/cyclone/data/method.html
Katrina Intensification over the Loop Current
Gustavo Goni, AOML
Heat Content Yields Forecast Improvement
Gustavo Goni, AOML
Heat Content Available Globally
www.aoml.noaa.gov/phod/cyclone/data
Gulf Stream Variability: Sea Surface Height (cm)
Smith et al., 2000: J. Phys. Oceanogr., 30, 1532-1561
Challenges: Infrared SST and Altimetry
Infrared SST obstructed by cloud.
http://fermi.jhuapl.edu/avhrr/gs n/
Altimeter measures anomaly but
not mean.
Gulf Stream North Wall Variations
Glenn and Crowley, 1997: J. Atmos. Ocean. Tech., 14, 1366-1378
Gulf Stream Recirculation from Altimetry
Kelly et al., 1999: J. Phys. Oceanogr., 29, 313-327
Recirculation Patterns
Dong and Kelly, 2004: J. Phys. Oceanogr., 34, 1214-1231
Mean Flow in the Gulf Stream: GRACE
Jayne, 2005: JGR, in press.
Mean Flow in the Gulf Stream: altimetry plus insitu
Rio and Hernandez, 2004: JGR, 109, C12032
Gulf Stream Instantaneous Snapshots: Nov-Dec,2003
LeTraon and Dibarboure, 2004: AVISO Newsletter # 10.
Summary
• Altimetry, scatterometry, grav-ity missions, infrared and mi-crowave SST have advancedknowledge of ocean circulation
• Loop Current: Forecasts im-prove with knowledge of oceanheat content along hurricanepath.
• Gulf Stream variability: Intensityand path changes influence totalheat transport.
• Gulf Stream mean flow via satel-lite gravity missions, in situ ob-servations: Prospects for bettercirculation. http://rads.tudelft.nl/gulfstream/
Eddy Kinetic Energy: Tandem Mission Yields Bet-ter Resolution (December 11, 2002)
Jason-1 + TOPEX/Poseidon Jason-1 onlyLeTraon and Dibarboure, 2004: AVISO Newsletter # 10.