Objective Detection of Oceanic Eddies and the Agulhas Leakage
- Beron-Vera, Francisco J. Rosenstiel School of Marine and Atmospheric Science, University of Miami, Miami, Florida
- Wang, Yan Rosenstiel School of Marine and Atmospheric Science, University of Miami, Miami, Florida
- Olascoaga, María J. Rosenstiel School of Marine and Atmospheric Science, University of Miami, Miami, Florida
- Goni, Gustavo J. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration/Atlantic Oceanographic and Meteorological Laboratory, Miami, Florida
- Haller, George Institute for Mechanical Systems, ETH Zürich, Zurich, Switzerland
- 2013-7-23
Published in:
- Journal of Physical Oceanography. - American Meteorological Society. - 2013, vol. 43, no. 7, p. 1426-1438
English
Abstract
Mesoscale oceanic eddies are routinely detected from instantaneous velocities derived from satellite altimetry data. While simple to implement, this approach often gives spurious results and hides true material transport. Here it is shown how geodesic transport theory, a recently developed technique from nonlinear dynamical systems, uncovers eddies objectively. Applying this theory to altimetry-derived velocities in the South Atlantic reveals, for the first time, Agulhas rings that preserve their material coherence for several months, while ring candidates yielded by other approaches tend to disperse or leak within weeks. These findings suggest that available velocity-based estimates for the Agulhas leakage, as well as for its impact on ocean circulation and climate, need revision.
- Language
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- English
- Open access status
- green
- Identifiers
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- DOI 10.1175/jpo-d-12-0171.1
- ISSN 0022-3670
- Persistent URL
- https://sonar.ch/global/documents/66588
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