Mesoscale and Submesoscale Eddies Identified from Synthetic Aperture Radar Imagery in the Luzon Strait and Adjacent Waters

Jingsong Yang1, Guangjun Xu1,2, Changming Dong3,4, Dake Chen1 and Juan Wang5, (1)Second Institute of Oceanography, State Oceanographic Administration of China, Hangzhou, China, (2)Memorial University of Newfoundland, Department of Physical Oceanography, St John's, NF, Canada, (3)University of California, Department of Atmospheric and Oceanic Sciences, Los Angeles, United States, (4)Nanjing University of Information Science and Technology, Oceanic Modeling and Observation Laboratory, Nanjing, China, (5)School of Systems Science, Beijing Normal University, Beijing, People’s Republic of China, Beijing, China
Abstract:
Based on synthetic aperture radar (SAR) images, this study illustrates the characteristics
of oceanic eddies in the Luzon Strait and its adjacent seas. An eddy detection
method is applied to 426 SAR frames (including the European Remote Sensing
satellite, ERS-2, and the Environmental Satellite, ENVISAT) from 2005 to 2011, and
60 eddies are identified. About 78% of these eddies have sizes smaller than 12 km,
which is smaller than the local first baroclinic deformation radius, and thus can be
categorized as submesoscale eddies. Their polarities are dominated by cyclonic features.
Our results indicate that oceanic eddy activity may be largely underestimated by
observational techniques that only resolve mesoscale features, and that SAR is an
effective tool for detecting and studying submesoscale eddies.
Back to: Mesoscale and Submesoscale Processes: Characterization, Dynamics, and Representation III Posters