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The South Atlantic pp 63–82Cite as

The Circulation and its Variability of the South Atlantic Ocean: First Results From the TOPEX/POSEIDON Mission

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Abstract

The sea surface height observations made by the radar altimetry system aboard the TOPEX/POSEIDON satellite, the first satellite dedicated to the study of the global ocean circulation, were used to study the circulation and its variability of the South Atlantic Ocean. Preliminary results from the first 18 month’s worth of data are presented on the mean ocean dynamic topography (1 year average) and its seasonal and mesoscale variabilities. Due to the large uncertainty in the geoid model at small scales, the utility of the dynamic topography is limited to scales larger than 2000 km. Comparisons were made with historical hydrographic observation and contemporaneous simulation by a computer model. Both annual and semiannual harmonics (amplitude and phase) were estimated for the sea level variations at scales larger than 500 km. The strongest seasonal variabilities (both annual and semiannual) were found in the Brazil/Malvinas Confluence and the Agulhas Retroflection, with secondary maxima in the Gulf of Guinea (semiannual) and the western tropical Atlantic (annual). The mesoscale variability revealed by the standard deviation of sea level is similar to previous observations. The effects of eddies on the mean flow, estimated from the eddy Reynolds stress, are important in the Brazil/ Malvinas Confluence and the Agulhas Retroflection.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology, 91109, Pasadena, CA, USA

    L.-L. Fu

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  1. L.-L. Fu
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© 1996 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg

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Fu, LL. (1996). The Circulation and its Variability of the South Atlantic Ocean: First Results From the TOPEX/POSEIDON Mission. In: The South Atlantic. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-80353-6_4

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-80353-6_4

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-642-80355-0

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-642-80353-6

  • eBook Packages: Springer Book Archive

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