Measuring the Global Ocean Surface Circulation with Satellite and In Situ Observations

Dohan, Kathleen

doi:10.5270/oceanobs09.cwp.23

Cited by 19 publications

(22 citation statements)

References 57 publications

(59 reference statements)

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“…Consistent agreement has been found between these satellite-derived currents and drifter currents (Pascual et al 2006, Sudre & Morrow 2008, Dohan et al 2010. However, it is important to keep in mind that fine-scale features, typically those with a spatio-temporal scale smaller than the resolution of the satellite measurements, may not be well resolved by this technique, which in turn may introduce some uncertainty in the overall current estimates.…”

Section: Inferring Surface Ocean Currents With Satellite Observationsmentioning

confidence: 50%

“…Rio & Hernandez 2003, Barron et al 2007, Dohan et al 2010. Accordingly, even though the Lagrangian drifter buoy data set has primarily been used by biologists to describe general patterns of ocean circulation, it can also be used to assess how accurately other methods for estimating currents can predict the movement of an object in the ocean.…”

Section: Testing Numerical Methods Using Lagrangian Drifter Buoysmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 1 more Smart Citation

A biologist’s guide to assessing ocean currents: a review

Fossette¹,

Putman²,

Lohmann³

et al. 2012

Mar. Ecol. Prog. Ser.

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We review how ocean currents are measured (in both Eulerian and Lagrangian frameworks), how they are inferred from satellite observations, and how they are simulated in ocean general circulation models (OGCMs). We then consider the value of these 'direct' (in situ) and 'indirect' (inferred, simulated) approaches to biologists investigating current-induced drift of strong-swimming vertebrates as well as dispersion of small organisms in the open ocean. We subsequently describe 2 case studies. In the first, OGCM-simulated currents were compared with satellite-derived currents; analyses suggest that the 2 methods yield similar results, but that each has its own limitations and associated uncertainty. In the second analysis, numerical methods were tested using Lagrangian drifter buoys. Results indicated that currents simulated in OGCMs do not capture all details of buoy trajectories, but do successfully resolve most general aspects of current flows. We thus recommend that the errors and uncertainties in ocean current measurements, as well as limitations in spatial and temporal resolution of the surface current data, need to be considered in tracking studies that incorporate oceanographic data. Whenever possible, crossvalidation of the different methods (e.g. indirect estimates versus buoy trajectories) should be undertaken before a decision is reached about which technique is best for a specific application.

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Section: Inferring Surface Ocean Currents With Satellite Observationsmentioning

confidence: 50%

Section: Testing Numerical Methods Using Lagrangian Drifter Buoysmentioning

confidence: 99%

A biologist’s guide to assessing ocean currents: a review

Fossette¹,

Putman²,

Lohmann³

et al. 2012

Mar. Ecol. Prog. Ser.

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“…The Global Drifter Program (GDP) surface velocity drifter array [29] can be used to deploy a large number of SSS sensors. A successful experiment in the western tropical Pacific ~1994 with sensors at ~11m depth showed very good stability over ~300 days.…”

Section: Figure 4: Results Of the Aquarius/sac-d Salinity Retrieval 3mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…In the equatorial oceans, SSS is known to vary rapidly because of frequent occurrence of rain and/or proximity of large river discharges, and is a common region for barrier layer formation. Figure 5 also shows a secondary GDP-SSS region in the subtropical Pacific where the surface circulation forms a large convergence zone [29]. A collection of drifters will tend to have long residence times in the region and provide well-sampled reference sites.…”

Section: Gdp Drifters With Sssmentioning

confidence: 99%

Resolving the Global Surface Salinity Field and Variations by Blending Satellite and In Situ Observations

Lagerloef¹,

Boutin²,

Chao³

et al. 2010

Proceedings of OceanObs'09: Sustained Ocean Observations and Information for Society

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This Community White Paper (CWP) examines the present Sea Surface Salinity (SSS) observing system, satellite systems to measure SSS and the requirements for satellite calibration and data validation. We provide recommendations for augmenting the in situ observing network to improve the synergism between in situ and remote sensing measurements. The goal is have an integrated (in situ-satellite) salinity observing system to provide necessary the global salinity analyses to open new frontiers of ocean and climate research. It is now well established that SSS is one of the fundamental variables for which sustained global observations are required to improve our knowledge and prediction of the ocean circulation, global water cycle and climate. With the advent of two new satellites, the ocean observing system will begin a new era for measuring and understanding the SSS field. The SMOS (Soil Moisture and Ocean Salinity) and Aquarius/SAC-D (Scientific Application Satellite-D) missions planned to be launched between late 2009 and late 2010, are intended to provide ~150-200 km spatial resolution globally, and accuracy ~0.2 psu, or better, on monthly average. The challenge for the next decade is to combine these satellite and in situ systems to generate the optimal global SSS analysis for climate and ocean research. The in situ data provide surface calibration and validation for the satellite data, while the satellites provide more complete spatial and temporal coverage. The first priority is the maintenance of the existing in situ SSS observing network. In addition, we propose specific enhancements, ideally to include (1) deploying ~ 200 SSS sensors on surface velocity drifters and moorings in key regions, and (2) adding higher vertical resolution near-surface profiles to ~100 Argo buoys to address surface stratification, mixing and skin effects. Plans during the next few years to deploy a significant fraction of these enhanced measurements are identified.

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“…Argo is now the workhorse for broad-scale temperature and salinity measurements. The tropical moored buoy arrays (McPhaden et al 2010) provide high-frequency sampling in the rapidly changing tropical waters (T, S and u); the Expendable Bathy-Thermograph (XBT) networks (Goni et al 2010) provide high-resolution sections to complement the broad-scale Argo network (particularly important for ocean transport calculation); L-band microwave satellite-borne radiometers (Lagerloef et al 2012;Font et al 2013) are now, for the first time, providing measurements of surface salinity with of the order of 0.5 psu accuracy for 10 day averages in 50 km squares and are expected to have a positive impact on GOV systems (Le Traon 2015); and the Global Drifter Program (Dohan et al 2010) provides important surface drift (and temperature) data for validation.…”

Section: Argomentioning

confidence: 99%