CoAuthors

Marie Drevillon (Mercator Ocean, France); Charly Regnier (Mercator Ocean, France); Romain Bourdalle Badie (Mercator Ocean, France); Claire Dufau (CLS, France)

The ocean energy content at different spatial scales, cascade of energy, and the dynamics of geostrophic flows can be characterized using wavenumber spectra. In this study, we compute wavenumber spectra of sea level anomalies from global numerical ocean circulation model simulations and from along-track sea level anomalies to compare their energy content at meso- and submeso-scales, and their resolution capability . Global eddy-resolving (1/12°) numerical simulations of the ocean performed by Mercator Ocean in the framework of the Copernicus Marine Environment and Monitoring Service (CMEMS) with different degrees of data assimilation are considered for the analysis to further assess the ability of data assimilation to constrain meso- and submeso-scale dynamics. Analyses are performed in several regions which experience different spatio-temporal variability regimes, including regions in the deep ocean and regions over continental shelves, and regions over which SAR data from Cryosat-2 are available.