Use of altimetry-derived sea surface heights for coastal surface submesoscale process studies

Abstract

This work evaluates feasibility and capability of the use of altimetryderived data for coastal surface submesoscale process (hourly and km-scale) studies with comparisons among independent mesoscale and submesoscale observations including sea surface heights obtained from altimetry and tide gauges, and coastal radar-derived surface currents, and passive tracer maps obtained from geostationary ocean color imagery. The coastal surface currents are decomposed into current components associated with stream functions and velocity potentials, and their stream functions are comparable with mesoscale SSHs and contain finer scale features, i.e., submesoscale fronts and eddies, which are supported by Chlorophyll maps having hourly and 500-m resolution. Some of altimeter-derived and coastalradar-derived data exhibit consistent mesoscale and submesoscale features and have a reasonable agreement with passive tracer maps as well.