Reconstruction of ocean currents at scales shorter than 30 km from existing satellite observations

IV Encuentro Oceanografía Física Española, celebrado del 20 al 22 de julio de 2016 en Alicante,España.-- 143 pageAlong-track altimetric measurements of Sea Surface Heights (SSH) are very well suited to quantify across-track currents. However, the spatial resolution of derived 2D velocities is restricted to scales above 100-150 km and the limited number of altimeters can lead to errors in the location of currents. On the contrary, infrared measurements of Sea Surface Temperature (SST) are well suited to locate flow patterns but it is difficult to extract quantitative estimations of ocean currents. To overcome the previous constrains we have developed a methodology to exploit the synergy between SST and SSH measurements to provide enhanced 2D surface currents. Our approach combines the usage of advanced signal processing techniques, such as wavelet analysis, with dynamical approaches like the Surface Quasi-Geostrophic (SQG) equations. This approach opens the door to retrieve the velocity field associated to structures smaller than 30 km, not accesible through the standard SSH maps. Here we will show some examples of the capabilities of our approach to retrieve the dynamics at such small scales by comparing the reconstruction from existing satellite information with in situ experiments and high resolution satellite data such as SAR mode CryoSat-2 measurementsPeer Reviewe