1. Quantifying Tidal Fluctuations in Remote Sensing Infrared SST Observations
- Author
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Emmanuelle Autret, Cristina González-Haro, Aurélien Ponte, Agence Nationale de la Recherche (France), and Centre National D'Etudes Spatiales (France)
- Subjects
010504 meteorology & atmospheric sciences ,Science ,Baroclinity ,Sea surface temperature ,Atmospheric sciences ,01 natural sciences ,Physics::Geophysics ,Barotropic fluid ,Internal tides ,14. Life underwater ,Physics::Atmospheric and Oceanic Physics ,Tidal currents ,0105 earth and related environmental sciences ,010505 oceanography ,Advection ,Astrophysics::Instrumentation and Methods for Astrophysics ,Front (oceanography) ,Scalar (physics) ,Satellite observations ,Amplitude ,13. Climate action ,Computer Science::Programming Languages ,General Earth and Planetary Sciences ,Astrophysics::Earth and Planetary Astrophysics ,Geology ,Noise (radio) - Abstract
Special Issue Ten Years of Remote Sensing at Barcelona Expert Center.-- 14 pages, 5 figures, 3 tables, 2 appendices, The expected amplitude of fixed-point sea surface temperature (SST) fluctuations induced by barotropic and baroclinic tidal flows is estimated from tidal current atlases and SST observations. The fluctuations considered are the result of the advection of pre-existing SST fronts by tidal currents. They are thus confined to front locations and exhibit fine-scale spatial structures. The amplitude of these tidally induced SST fluctuations is proportional to the scalar product of SST frontal gradients and tidal currents. Regional and global estimations of these expected amplitudes are presented. We predict barotropic tidal motions produce SST fluctuations that may reach amplitudes of 0.3 K. Baroclinic (internal) tides produce SST fluctuations that may reach values that are weaker than 0.1 K. The amplitudes and the detectability of tidally induced fluctuations of SST are discussed in the light of expected SST fluctuations due to other geophysical processes and instrumental (pixel) noise. We conclude that actual observations of tidally induced SST fluctuations are a challenge with present-day observing systems, Aurélien Ponte benefited from funding via the ANR project EQUINOx (ANR-17-CE01-0006-01) and CNES TOSCA project “New dynamical tools for submesoscale characterization in SWOT data”. Cristina González-Haro benefited from funding by CNES
- Published
- 2019