Seasonal variability of alongshore geostrophic velocity relative to 500 dbar is examined from 23 years
of hydrographic data along two sections off central California (one off Point Sur and the other off Point
Conception). The seasonal cycles are determined by least square fits of the gappy data records to
harmonics...
A new method is developed for studying large-scale temporal variability of ocean currents from
satellite altimetric sea level measurements at intersections (crossovers) of ascending and descending orbit
ground tracks. Using this method, sea level time series can be constructed from crossover sea level
differences in small sample areas where altimetric...
In a recent paper, Sandwell and Agreen [1984; hereafter SA]
presented figures of global seasonal wind speed and sea state
as measured by the GEOS 3 satellite altimeter. Since that
time, Chelton and McCabe [1985; hereafter CM] have found
that problems exist in the algorithms used to retrieve wind
speed...
The scheduled February 1985 launch of a radar altimeter aboard the U.S. Navy satellite Geosat has
motivated an in-depth investigation of wind speed retrieval from satellite altimeters. The accuracy of sea
surface wind speed estimated by the Seasat altimeter is examined by comparison with wind speed
estimated by the Seasat...
Sea surface temperature (SST) is measured from space by advanced very high resolution radiometer (AVHRR), scanning multichannel microwave radiometer (SMMR), high resolution infrared sounder (HIRS) and VISSR atmospheric sounder (VAS). Typical accuraces have been reported from 0.5°C regionally to 2.0°C on a global basis. To evaluate the accuracy of the...
A series of satellite sea surface temperature (SST) intercomparison workshops were conducted under NASA sponsorship at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory. Three different satellite data sets were compared with each other, with routinely collected ship data, and with climatology for the months of November 1979, December 1981, March 1982, and July...
Tide gauges are designed to measure changes in water level relative to land. However, vertical motions of the earth's crust manifest themselves as apparent water level changes in tide gauge records. These crustally induced changes are often small in amplitude relative to the wide range of oceanic processes which affect...
A previous altimeter wind speed retrieval algorithm was developed on the basis of wind speeds in the the limited range from about 4 to 14 ms¯¹. In this paper, we use a new approach which gives a wind speed model function applicable over the range 0 to 21 ms¯¹. The...
Surface drifters were depldyed and tracked over the continental shelf and upper continental slope off central California between Point Conception and Point Sur. The drifters were deployed and tracked from aircraft by Aero-Marine Surveys, Inc. under subcontract to Raytheon Service Company as part of the Central California Coastal Circulation Study...
CTD observations were made over the continental shelf and upper continental slope from the coast to approximately 60 km off central California between latitudes 34°N and 37.5°N. The measurements were made by Raytheon Service Company as part of the Central California Coastal Circulation Study sponsored by the Minerals Management Service....
CTD observations were made over the continental shelf and upper
continental slope from the coast to approximately 60 km off central California
between latitudes 34°N and 37.5°N. The measurements were made by Raytheon
Service Company as part of the Central California Coastal Circulation Study
sponsored by the Minerals Management Service....
CTD observations were made over the continental shelf and upper
continental slope from the coast to approximately 60 km off central California
between latitudes 34°N and 37.5°N. The measurements were made by Raytheon
Service Company as part of the Central California Coastal Circulation Study
sponsored by the Minerals Management Service....
CTD observations were made over the continental shelf and upper
continental slope from the coast to approximately 60 km off central California
between latitudes 34°N and 37.5°N. The measurements were made by Raytheon
Service Company as part of the Central California Coastal Circulation Study
sponsored by the Minerals Management Service....
The area near Point Arguello has long been recognized as a location of strong
upwelling. A tongue of biologically active waters was observed in the earliest studies of
this region (Sverdrup and Allen, 1939). More recently, satellite estimates of chlorophyll by
the Coastal Zone Color Scanner (CZCS) on Nimbus-7 have...
Currents and winds measured over the continental shelf and upper continental slope during the first
half of 1984 are analyzed to determine the character of the flow off central California (Point Conception
to San Francisco). The mean flow was poleward from Point Conception to Point Sur, in opposition to
the...
Ambiguity in wind direction has long been an impediment to applications of wind observations from the Seasat scatterometer (SASS). Three months of unambiguous global SASS vector winds (7 July-10 October 1978) have recently become available from the Goddard Space Flight Center(GSFC) Laboratory for Atmospheric Sciences. The directional ambiguities were removed...
Three months of vector wind observations from the Seasat-A satellite scatterometer (SASS) are used to construct gridded fields of monthly average wind stress and wind stress curl over the global ocean. These fields are examined to identify features either poorly resolved or not present in wind stress fields constructed from...
The variability of sea level and surface geostrophic currents in the Southern Ocean is investigated from the first 26 months of unclassified Geosat altimeter data (November 1986 to December 1988). Because of problems unique to Geosat, it has been necessary to develop new techniques for analyzing the height data. These...
The sea-state bias in Geosat altimeter range measurements expressed as a percentage of significant
wave height (SWH) is examined as a function of SWH. The bias is shown to be approximately
a fixed -3.5% of SWH for SWH smaller than about 4 m. For larger SWH, the bias decreases in...