The information contained in altimetric Sea Surface Height frequency spectra
- Creators
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de Marez, Charly1
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Callies, Jörn2
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1.
University of Iceland
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2.
California Institute of Technology
Abstract
Despite the amount of data sampled by current and upcoming satellite missions, the temporal evolution of oceanic turbulence is for now poorly understood. Here we use state-of-the-art satellite measurements of Sea Surface Height timeseries, combined with global oceanic re-analysis and idealized numerical simulations to study the properties of the frequency spectrum for oceanic turbulence. We show that the meridional gradient of Potential Vorticity, that supports planetary Rossby Waves, and the barotropic current are the main parameters that shape the frequency spectrum of Sea Surface Height as observed by satellite altimetry.
Copyright and License
© 2025 American Meteorological Society. This published article is licensed under the terms of the default AMS reuse license.
Acknowledgement
C. d. M. was supported by NASA Grant 80NSSC20K1140 during the study and by a Queen Margrethe II’s and Vigdís Finnbogadóttir’s Interdisciplinary Research Centre on Ocean, Climate, and Society (ROCS) postdoctoral fellowship during the finalization of the writting. J. C. was supported by NASA Grant 80NSSC20K1140.
Data Availability
Sea surface height Jason-3 data are distributed by AVISO+ with support from CNES and can be downloaded on Copernicus data access service (https://data.marine.copernicus.eu/product/SEALEVEL_GLO_PHY_L3_MY_008_062/services). SWOT_L3_SSH dataset is produced and made freely available by AVISO and DUACS teams as part of the DESMOS Science team project (AVISO/DUACS 2023). It is available on AVISO website (https://www.aviso.altimetry.fr/en/data/products/sea-surface-height-products/global/swot-l3-ocean-products.html). ECCO reanalysis data were obtained on PODAAC website (https://podaac.jpl.nasa.gov/dataset/ECCO_L4_TEMP_SALINITY_05DEG_MONTHLY_V4R4). The QG model is available on author’s GitHub (https://github.com/joernc/QGModel). Scripts and data to reproduce the study are available on the author’s GitHub (https://github.com/demarez/freqspectrum).
Files
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Additional details
- National Aeronautics and Space Administration
- 80NSSC20K1140
- Available
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2025-02-03Published online
- Caltech groups
- Division of Geological and Planetary Sciences (GPS)
- Publication Status
- Published