ALBERT

Description: The complex structure of the vertical velocity field inside an anticyclonic eddy located just south of the Canary Islands is analyzed through a high-resolution ocean model. Based on the flow divergence, vertical velocity is decomposed into various forcing components. The analysis reveals that advection and stretching of vorticity are the most important forcing contributions to the vertical velocity within the eddy. In the mixed layer, a small-scale multipolar vertical velocity pattern dominates. This is the result of vertical mixing effects that enhance the surface vertical velocity by increasing the ageostrophic velocity profile. As a result, an ageostrophic secondary circulation arises that acts to restore thermal-wind balance, inducing strong vertical motions. Nonlinear Ekman pumping/suction patterns resemble the small-scale vertical velocity field, suggesting that nonlinear Ekman effects are important in explaining the complex vertical velocity, despite an overestimate of its magnitude. In the eddy thermocline, the vertical velocity is characterized by a dipolar pattern, which experiences changes in intensity and axisymmetrization with time. The dipolar vertical velocity distribution arises from the imbalance between the advection and stretching of the vorticity forcing terms. A vertical velocity dipole is also obtained by solving a generalized omega equation from density and horizontal velocity fields, which also shows a preponderance of the ageostrophic term. The ubiquity of dipolar vertical velocity distributions inside isolated anticyclones is supported by recent observational findings in the same oceanic region.

Description: An innovative approach is used to analyse the impact of vertical velocities associated with quasi-geostrophic (QG) dynamics on the distribution of a passive nutrient tracer (nitrate) in the South East Pacific. Twelve years of vertical and horizontal currents are derived from an observation-based estimate of the ocean state. Horizontal velocities are obtained through application of thermal wind balance to weekly temperature and salinity fields. Vertical velocities are estimated by integration of the QG Omega equation. Seasonal variability of the synthetic vertical velocity and kinetic energy associated with the horizontal currents are coincident, with peaks in austral summer (November–December) in accord with published observations. Two ensembles of Lagrangian particle tracking experiments that differ according to vertical forcing (w = wQG vs. w = 0) enable a quantitative analysis of the impact of the vertical velocity. From identical initial distributions of nitrate-tagged particles, the Lagrangian results show that the impact of vertical advection on nutrient distribution is 30 % of the contribution of horizontal advection. Despite being weaker by a factor of up to 10−4 than the horizontal currents, vertical velocity is demonstrated to make an important contribution to nutrient distributions in the region of study.

Description: In 2018 we celebrated 25 years of development of radar altimetry, and the progress achieved by this methodology in the fields of global and coastal oceanography, hydrology, geodesy and cryospheric sciences. Many symbolic major events have celebrated these developments, e.g., in Venice, Italy, the 15th (2006) and 20th (2012) years of progress and more recently, in 2018, in Ponta Delgada, Portugal, 25 Years of Progress in Radar Altimetry. On this latter occasion it was decided to collect contributions of scientists, engineers and managers involved in the worldwide altimetry community to depict the state of altimetry and propose recommendations for the altimetry of the future. This paper summarizes contributions and recommendations that were collected and provides guidance for future mission design, research activities, and sustainable operational radar altimetry data exploitation. Recommendations provided are fundamental for optimizing further scientific and operational advances of oceanographic observations by altimetry, including requirements for spatial and temporal resolution of altimetric measurements, their accuracy and continuity. There are also new challenges and new openings mentioned in the paper that are particularly crucial for observations at higher latitudes, for coastal oceanography, for cryospheric studies and for hydrology. The paper starts with a general introduction followed by a section on Earth System Science including Ocean Dynamics, Sea Level, the Coastal Ocean, Hydrology, the Cryosphere and Polar Oceans and the “Green” Ocean, extending the frontier from biogeochemistry to marine ecology. Applications are described in a subsequent section, which covers Operational Oceanography, Weather, Hurricane Wave and Wind Forecasting, Climate projection. Instruments’ development and satellite missions’ evolutions are described in a fourth section. A fifth section covers the key observations that altimeters provide and their potential complements, from other Earth observation measurements to in situ data. Section 6 identifies the data and methods and provides some accuracy and resolution requirements for the wet tropospheric correction, the orbit and other geodetic requirements, the Mean Sea Surface, Geoid and Mean Dynamic Topography, Calibration and Validation, data accuracy, data access and handling (including the DUACS system). Section 7 brings a transversal view on scales, integration, artificial intelligence, and capacity building (education and training). Section 8 reviews the programmatic issues followed by a conclusion.