Earth Observations from Space The First 50 Years of Scientific Achievements (2008) / Chapter Skim
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8 Ocean Dynamics
8 Ocean Dynamics
Pages 64-72
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From page 64... ...
As illustrated in more detail below, sea surface tem SST is one of the most important indicators of global perature (SST) measurements not only revealed important climate change and a vital parameter for climate modeling information about ocean circulations (e.g., the Gulf Stream)
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From page 65... ...
These results showed considerable interannual variability in the path of the stream based on the position of the "North Wall" -- the boundary at which strong temperature gradients (fronts) between warm Gulf Stream waters and colder waters of the Northwest Atlantic demarcate the northernmost extent of the stream (Lee and Cornillon 1995)
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From page 66... ...
Mesoscale features such as vortices and jets, as well as tidal fronts and river plumes, had been seen previously in aerial photographs and thermal imagery from the TIROS ramifications for quantifying and predicting sea-level rise satellites, but ocean color images revealed entirely new fea(Cabanes et al.
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From page 67... ...
. The Amazon River plume is the green band extending across the Atlantic in this seasonally averaged CZCS pigment image for the months of September to November 1979.
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From page 68... ...
. ocean circulation will lead to inaccurate models of climate For the first time, satellite altimetry observations allowed change over geological time due to the high dependence of synoptic measurements of ocean tides in the global open the Earth's climate on ocean circulation (Wunsch 2007)
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From page 69... ...
Thus, T/P altimetry height. However, since T/P, along-track analysis became provided compelling evidence supporting the theory that possible with the availability of precise altimetry data lead- Rossby waves are an important mechanism for moving ing to direct global measurements of internal tides (Tierney energy from east to west in ocean basins.
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From page 70... ...
, the T/P data were smoothed with half-power filter cutoffs of 6º × 6º × 30 days, and the merged T/P-ERS data were smoothed with half-power filter cutoffs of 3º × 3º × 20 days. After filtering to remove large-scale heating and cooling effects unrelated to mesoscale variability, the anomaly SSH field consists of many isolated cyclonic and anticyclonic features (negative and positive SSH, respectively)
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From page 71... ...
, low-level winds are Two-Way Ocean-Atmosphere Interaction locally stronger over warm water and weaker over cold water throughout the oceans wherever strong SST fronts exist. This Scatterometers have also made significant contributions ocean-atmosphere interaction apparently arises from SST to the study of ocean dynamics by providing a synoptic view modifications of stability and vertical mixing in the marine (approximately 25 km spatial resolution)
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From page 72... ...
over the California Current system. The wind stress fields were constructed from QuikScatdata.
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