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 wind speed and significant wave height (H1/3) dependencies of the sea state is in altimeter estimates of sea level, expressed in the form ∆hSSB=bH1/3, are examined from least squares analysis of 21 cycles of collinear TOPEX data. The bias coefficient b is found to increase in magnitude with increasing...
The impact of SST specification on low-level winds in the operational ECMWF numerical weather prediction model is investigated in the eastern tropical Pacific from comparisons of ECMWF wind stress fields with QuikSCAT satellite scatterometer observations of wind stress during the August–December cold seasons of 2000 and 2001. These two time...
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...
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 simple statistic is derived for quantifying the potential for the aliasing of tidal errors in a given linear estimate of sea surface height constructed from altimeter data. The existence of M2 tidal constituent errors in Geosat data processed in the traditional way (i.e., with orbit errors removed using least...
Westward propagating Gaussian eddies with statistical characteristics estimated from altimeter observations but with purely random starting locations and times produce striated features in time-averaged maps of zonal velocity. The striations in these simulations have magnitudes and meridional scales comparable to those reported from time-averaged altimeter observations and model output in...
Alias periods and wavelengths for the M2, S2, N2, K1, O1, and P1 tidal constituents are calculated for TOPEX/POSEIDON. Alias wavelengths calculated in previous studies are shown to be in error, and a correct method is presented. With the exception of the K1 constituent, all of these tidal aliases for...
Satellite observations have revealed a remarkably strong positive correlation between sea surface temperature (SST) and surface winds on oceanic mesoscales of 10–1000 km. Although SST influence on the atmosphere had previously been identified from several in situ observational studies, its widespread existence in regions of strong SST gradients throughout the...
