Internal waves include soliton of period 10-20 minutes and tidal frequency waves. Large internal solitons with amplitude over 100 m were observed frequently in the South China Sea (SCS). There were convergence zones of 500-1000 m wide in the wave front of solitons which can be detected by satellite from the space. The hypothesis of this study is the internal wave signal can be extracted from the sea surface anomalies of satellite altimetry. Data analyzed include TOPEX/Poseidon altimeter from August 2002 to October 2005 in the northern SCS and Kuroshio regions. Methods applied include (1) standard deviation analysis, (2) harmonic analysis and (3) wavenumber spectrum analysis. The results show that¡]1¡^there is an annual variation in the sea surface height, which is explained due to water temperature changes in different seasons. (2) The results of harmonic analysis show that the amplitude of M2 aliasing is only a few centimeters on the sea surface. The different is small between internal active region and that of without. (3) The absolute values of slope, of internal wave energy and wavenumber spectrum, are 2-3 in the wave active region. This suggests that there are wave motions of scale 100 km or larger, which matches with the length scale of internal waves in the northern SCS.

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No description available.

A radar altimetry satellite measures the height of sea surface globally. However, tide gauges, measuring Sea Level Height (SLH), are set up on the Earth surface. Hence, SLHs are involved in vertical motion of the Earth crust. In this study, vertical motions of Earth crust have been separated from sea level variations. After clustering of SSH observations with K-means approach, two outlier detection methods Pope and Interquartile (IQR) Tests are implemented in data. Afterwards, each altimetry measurement is relocated to the center point of own cluster by means of geoid height derived from Earth Gravitational Model 2008 (EGM08). Before application of Principal Component Analysis (PCA) to see behavior of SSH inbetween clusters, Lomb Scargle algorithm is run to realize power spectrum of every clustered observations distinctly. Besides, tide gauge measurements are used for extracting 68 constituents with T_Tide program from hourly tide gauge observations. Then, predicted signal is produced by means of classical tidal harmonic analysis. To get monthly and daily mean values of hourly data, MSDOS Processing and Quality Controlling Software (SLPR2) has been run and the results are compared with Permanent Service for Mean Sea Level (PSMSL) monthly mean sea level values. Afterwards, the trends from altimetry, tide gauge and GPS are investigated to reveal vertical land motion. This study shows that sea level is rising every year more or less 7 mm at the Mediterranean coast of Turkey. Although Iskenderun tide gauge subsides 50 mm every year, the other stations do not show huge amount of vertical motion.

In the western tropical Atlantic, the North Brazil Current retroflection periodically sheds large anticyclonic rings, which then propagate northwestward. Between 1998 and 2000, the North Brazil Current Rings Experiment sampled a large number of these rings by shipboard and moored acoustic Doppler current profiler. Ten of the sampled rings are analyzed in this study, focusing on their sea surface dynamic properties. The rings exhibit a radial structure consisting of two regimes, an ``inner'' core region in near solid body rotation and an ``outer'' ring regime with an approximately exponentially decaying structure. The observations show a sharp change in vorticity at the regime transition and the presence of a strong opposite vorticity shield bounding the inner solid body core. We show that Gaussian models, commonly used to represent the surface expression of these and other rings, are adequate for determining the sea surface height anomaly but tend to poorly estimate other properties such as the maximum swirl velocity. Therefore, we propose a new two--part model as a better approximation of the rings' radial structure. According to the cyclogeostrophic balance approximation, the sea surface height distribution across the inner ring has a parabolic shape, while the outer ring has an exponential structure similar to the velocity field. Interestingly, many of the observed rings have an intensity very close to the theoretical limit for anticyclones at these latitudes, which is believed to be due to inertial instability. A climatology of the NBCR is developed from 17 years of satellite altimetry. Usually 5 to 7 NBCR are observed per year, leading to an average of 6.1 rings per year, higher than the previously accepted 5.5 rings per year. A new methodology, more robust and consistent, is developed to track the rings, showing an impressive skill. The methodology can be applied to any velocity field, including irregular data grids. In contrast to what was previously believed, the NBCR do have a seasonal cycle. While so clear in the number of generated rings the seasonal cycle is explicit in the rhythm of formation. The rings are usually formed every 30--70 days, being more frequent during the Spring, when they are generated in a regular pace of near 40 days. In the Fall, the rings are less frequent, with a longer and variable time interval between them. The generation of North Brazil Current Rings (NBCR) has been proposed from numerical simulations to result from westward propagation Rossby waves originating from the instability of the North Equatorial Countercurrent (NECC). Other mechanisms, such as instability of he North Brazil Current where it crosses the equator, are also possible, and the precise mechanisms controlling NBCR formation are still undetermined. Here the ``NECC wave mechanism'' for generation of the near surface NBCR is evaluated for the first time from observations -- 18 years of satellite altimetry. Using a Complex Principal Component analysis on maps of absolute dynamic topography, it is shown that the NECC is the origin of the coherent propagating rings along the NBCR corridor. In agreement with the results proposed from previous simulations, the modal solution has a longer wavelength before the retroflection and shorter wavelength along the ring corridor. The seasonal signal of the wave energy in the NECC is also found to be coherent with the seasonal production cycle of the rings, after taking into account phase lags due to wave propagation. It is therefore confirmed that the of NBCR shedding is defined by wave processes arising in the NECC. Further, in contrast with prior understanding, the NBCR are shown to have a seasonal signal that follows the seasonal cycle of the NECC intensity.

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No description available.

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Dados de altimetria por satélite contêm informações importantes para o mapeamento de estruturas tectônicas em regiões oceânicas, como falhas, zonas de fratura e montes submarinos. A grande disponibilidade e densidade desses dados permitem a identificação de feições do assoalho oceânico com boa precisão. Este trabalho tem como objetivo investigar as características estruturais da Elevação do Rio Grande, no Atlântico Sul, através de elementos do campo de gravidade terrestre. Para isso, são utilizados dados de altura da superfície do mar (SSH) provenientes dos satélites das missões ERS1-GM, Geosat-GM e Seasat. Com o cálculo da derivada direcional da SSH ao longo das trilhas ascendentes e descendentes dos satélites, foram obtidos os gradientes de superfície do mar (SSG), que ressaltam os curtos comprimentos de ondas associados às importantes feições oceânicas estudadas. Também foram calculados os gradientes da altura geoidal (desvio da vertical) para auxiliar na interpretação do sinal da SSG. Através da SSH foi possível identificar estruturas de maior porte, como o rift da elevação, e algumas fraturas e montes submarinos maiores. Por outro lado, a SSG forneceu maiores detalhes sobre as feições já caracterizadas pela SSH e de toda a região, revelando também diversas outras estruturas de menor dimensão. O posicionamento das feições identificadas por ambas as grandezas, SSH e SSG, é bastante preciso. Entretanto, fatores como a direção e a orientação das trilhas dos satélites e a presença de estruturas adjacentes podem influenciar a resposta da SSG para uma determinada feição tectônica, por isso, as trilhas ascendentes e descendentes dos três satélites podem apresentar respostas diferenciadas. Sendo assim, recomenda-se analisar os dois conjuntos de trilhas de várias missões altimétricas para obter maiores informações das características estruturais das feições investigadas. O estudo também permitiu identificar possíveis estruturas com uma resposta característica de montes submarinos, nas trilhas descendentes de SSH, que não foram caracterizados anteriormente na literatura e não possuem correspondente nos modelos topográficos/batimétricos. / Satellite altimetry data contain important information for mapping tectonic structures in oceanic regions, such as faults, fracture zones and seamounts. The great availability and spatial density of these data allow one to identify ocean floor features with good accuracy. This work aims to investigate structural characteristics of the Rio Grande Rise, in South Atlantic, through elements of the terrestrial gravity field. We used sea surface height (SSH) data from satellite missions ERS1-GM, Geosat-GM and Seasat to calculate sea surface gradients (SSG), which are the SSH directional derivative along the ascending and descending satellite tracks. SSG emphasize the short wavelengths associated with the important oceanic features studied. Geoid gradients (deflection of the vertical) were also calculated to assist in the interpretation of the SSG signal. By analyzing sea surface heights, it is possible to identify larger structures, such as the rift of the rise, some fractures and large seamounts. In contrast, sea surface gradients provide greater details of the features characterized by the SSH and the entire area, also revealing several smaller seamounts. The positioning of the structures identified by both SSH and SSG is fairly accurate. However, factors such as direction and orientation of the satellite tracks and the presence of adjacent structures may influence the SSG response to a given tectonic feature. For this reason, the ascending and descending tracks of the three satellites may have different responses. Therefore, it is recommended that one analyzes the two sets of tracks from the several altimetric missions to obtain more information on the structural characteristics of the features. The study also allowed us to identify possible structures with a characteristic response of seamounts on SSH descending tracks, which were not previously characterized in the literature and do not have a similar correspondent in topographic/bathymetric models.