Estimates from Altimeter Data of Barotropic Rossby Waves in the Northwestern Atlantic Ocean

Abstract

A dynamical model representing linear barotropic Rossby waves is combined with GEOSAT data from the northwest Atlantic Ocean. The model is too simple to be very realistic in this complex area, but the problem of combining any model with real data raises a number of issues that we address. The combination method used is sequential estimation in the form of a filtering- smoothing operation. A fraction of the total signal variance (5% to 15%) in the area over several spacecraft repeat cycles is demonstrated to be consistent with five Rossby waves. That the result is robust is demonstrated by recovering known signals added synthetically to the real data. Ocean surface; Ocean waves; Ocean models; Oceanographic data; Ocean circulation; Kalman filtering. Reprints.

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Document Details

Document Type
Technical Report
Publication Date
Dec 01, 1989
Accession Number
ADA217519

Entities

People

  • Carl Wunsch
  • Philippe Gaspar

Organizations

  • Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Tags

Communities of Interest

  • Energy and Power Technologies
  • Materials and Manufacturing Processes
  • Space

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

  • Algorithms
  • Atlantic Ocean
  • Dispersion Relations
  • Estimators
  • Filtration
  • Frequency
  • Gulf Stream
  • Kalman Filtering
  • Kalman Filters
  • Long Wavelengths
  • Measurement
  • Ocean Currents
  • Oceanography
  • Oceans
  • Rossby Waves
  • Slope
  • Waves

Fields of Study

  • Environmental science

Readers

  • Adaptive Control and Estimation with Uncertainty in Dynamic Systems.
  • Coastal Oceanography
  • Oceanography.

Technology Areas

  • Space