ocean surface topography science team meeting, buellton, california, june 19, 2008

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Ocean Surface Topography Science Team Meeting,Buellton, California, June 19, 2008

Nikolai MaximenkoIPRC/SOEST, University of Hawaii at Manoa, USA

A New View of the Ocean General Circulation

Collaborators: Peter Niiler , Bruce Cornuelle, Timothy Liu, Oleg Melnichenko, Niklas Schneider, Jan Hafner, Emanuel DiLorenzo, Vincent Combes , Hideharu Sasaki

Contributions and acknowledgements: B. Galperin, B. Bang, V. Zlotnicki, D. Chambers,M.-H. Rio, C. Koblinsky, K. Richards, J. McWilliams, H.-P. Huang, P. Hacker,C. Wilson, S. DeCarlo, S.-P. Xie, D. Chelton, P. Rhines, M. McIntyre, Y.Y. Kim, M. Pazos, B. Qiu, J. Potemra, K. Lebedev, H. Yoshinari, L.Centurioniand many others

NASA NSF NOAA JAMSTEC APDRC

Ocean currents in Physiography for High Schools by Albert L. Arey, Frank L. Bryant, William W. Clendenin and William T. Morrey, USA: 1911.

Reid, 1994Windows to the Universe at UCARhttp://www.windows.ucar.edu/

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Satellite altimeter measures directly the distance between the orbit andthe ocean surface.

Aviso

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Maximum deviation of geoid from ellipsoidreaches +/- 100 m.

Sea level difference due to ocean dynamicsis a few meters.

Earth Gravity model and Equipotential surface (geoid) improved by GRACE

http://www.csr.utexas.edu/grace/gallery/gravity/ggm01_asia.html

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Courtesy of Victor Zlotnicki, JPL

NASA JPL MDOT based on the GRACE geoid

Effective resolution: 500 kmCorresponds well withthe altitude of the orbitof 485 km.

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<U>

sqrt(<U’2+V’2>)

AOML: - Feb 1979 – Dec 2006- 10561 drifters- 9997 years- 78 M km

Hence:- drifter life ~ 1 year- mean speed ~ 25 cm/s

<…> is a drifter-ensemble averageon ¼ deg. grid.

SVP/GDP drifters

Mean streamlines of ocean surface currents. Colors show strength of the currents

Mean sea level improved by combining satellite radar altimeter, GRACE and drifter data

Eastward geostrophic velocities derived from the improved mean sea level

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HLCC AzC

StHCNECC/SECstriations

Eastward geostrophic velocities derived from the improved mean sea level

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Zonal geostrophic velocities from 1993-2002 MDOT’s

HLCC AzC

StHCNECC/SECstriations

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Stationarywaves

gravity waves on street

Rossby wavesin ocean

Jason-2Good luck!!!