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AGU: Geophysical Research Letters

 

Keywords

  • eddies
  • sea surface height
  • altimeter or altimetry
  • Rossby waves

Index Terms

  • Oceanography: General: Remote sensing and electromagnetic processes
  • Oceanography: Physical: Eddies and mesoscale processes
  • Oceanography: Physical: Sea level: variations and mean

Abstract

GEOPHYSICAL RESEARCH LETTERS, VOL. 34, L15606, 5 PP., 2007
doi:10.1029/2007GL030812

Global observations of large oceanic eddies

Dudley B. Chelton

College of Oceanic and Atmospheric Sciences, Oregon State University, Corvallis, Oregon, USA

Michael G. Schlax

College of Oceanic and Atmospheric Sciences, Oregon State University, Corvallis, Oregon, USA

Roger M. Samelson

College of Oceanic and Atmospheric Sciences, Oregon State University, Corvallis, Oregon, USA

Roland A. de Szoeke

College of Oceanic and Atmospheric Sciences, Oregon State University, Corvallis, Oregon, USA

Ten years of sea-surface height (SSH) fields constructed from the merged TOPEX/Poseidon (T/P) and ERS-1/2 altimeter datasets are analyzed to investigate mesoscale variability in the global ocean. The higher resolution of the merged dataset reveals that more than 50% of the variability over much of the World Ocean is accounted for by eddies with amplitudes of 5–25 cm and diameters of 100–200 km. These eddies propagate nearly due west at approximately the phase speed of nondispersive baroclinic Rossby waves with preferences for slight poleward and equatorward deflection of cyclonic and anticyclonic eddies, respectively. The vast majority of the eddies are found to be nonlinear.

Received 26 May 2007; accepted 6 July 2007; published 9 August 2007.

Citation: Chelton, D. B., M. G. Schlax, R. M. Samelson, and R. A. de Szoeke (2007), Global observations of large oceanic eddies, Geophys. Res. Lett., 34, L15606, doi:10.1029/2007GL030812.

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