Abstract's details
Investigating the variability of eddy formation in the eastern subpolar North Atlantic from satellite altimetry
CoAuthors
Event: 2022 Ocean Surface Topography Science Team Meeting
Session: Science III: Mesoscale and sub-mesoscale oceanography
Presentation type: Type Poster
Contribution: PDF file
Abstract:
Abstract:
Mesoscale processes contribute nearly 50% of the meridional heat transport variability in the eastern subpolar North Atlantic (Zhao et al. 2018). In this project, we study the variability in the generation of coherent anticyclonic addies in the Iceland Basin of the eastern Subpolar North Atlantic using satellite altimetry. For this, we employ two automatic eddy detection schemes to track eddies (Faghmous et al. 2015 and Chelton et al. 2011) FA15 and CH11 respectively using Sea Level Anomaly data. We compare the two schemes to understand the difference between them in terms of detection of eddies, calculation of size, life, and strength of eddies. We also look at how effective/different these products are in identifying the eddies and how do they behave with different satellite products (multi-satellite or two satellite products). We found that the number of anticyclonic eddies detected by CH11 differs by nearly 200 with FA15 for the period between 1993-2019, with a notable interannual variation. However, both products captured a low-frequency variability in the generation of anticyclonic eddies. The mean characteristics of eddies detected by both products were similar. The results also point out that the type of satellite dataset determines the outcome of the same analysis.
References:
1. Zhao, J., Bower, A., Yang, J., Lin, X. & Penny Holliday, N. Meridional heat transport variability induced by mesoscale processes in the subpolar North Atlantic. Nat. Commun. 9, 1124 (2018).
2. Faghmous, J. H. et al. A daily global mesoscale ocean eddy dataset from satellite altimetry. Sci. Data 2, 150028 (2015).
3. Chelton, D. B., Schlax, M. G. & Samelson, R. M. Global observations of nonlinear mesoscale eddies. Prog. Oceanogr. 91, 167–216 (2011).
Mesoscale processes contribute nearly 50% of the meridional heat transport variability in the eastern subpolar North Atlantic (Zhao et al. 2018). In this project, we study the variability in the generation of coherent anticyclonic addies in the Iceland Basin of the eastern Subpolar North Atlantic using satellite altimetry. For this, we employ two automatic eddy detection schemes to track eddies (Faghmous et al. 2015 and Chelton et al. 2011) FA15 and CH11 respectively using Sea Level Anomaly data. We compare the two schemes to understand the difference between them in terms of detection of eddies, calculation of size, life, and strength of eddies. We also look at how effective/different these products are in identifying the eddies and how do they behave with different satellite products (multi-satellite or two satellite products). We found that the number of anticyclonic eddies detected by CH11 differs by nearly 200 with FA15 for the period between 1993-2019, with a notable interannual variation. However, both products captured a low-frequency variability in the generation of anticyclonic eddies. The mean characteristics of eddies detected by both products were similar. The results also point out that the type of satellite dataset determines the outcome of the same analysis.
References:
1. Zhao, J., Bower, A., Yang, J., Lin, X. & Penny Holliday, N. Meridional heat transport variability induced by mesoscale processes in the subpolar North Atlantic. Nat. Commun. 9, 1124 (2018).
2. Faghmous, J. H. et al. A daily global mesoscale ocean eddy dataset from satellite altimetry. Sci. Data 2, 150028 (2015).
3. Chelton, D. B., Schlax, M. G. & Samelson, R. M. Global observations of nonlinear mesoscale eddies. Prog. Oceanogr. 91, 167–216 (2011).