Mesoscale surface current fields in the Baltic Sea derived from multi-sensor satellite data

We demonstrate the use of multi-sensor satellite images for the computation of mesoscale surface currents in the Northern and Southern Baltic Proper by enhancing and combining image-processing techniques. The sequential satellite images were acquired by the Thematic Mapper (TM), the ERS-2 Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR), the Wide-Field Scanner (WiFS) and the Sea-viewing Wide Field-of-view Sensor (SeaWiFS) during extensive cyanobacterial blooms in July 1997 and in July/August 1999. We also used a pair of Advanced SAR (ASAR) images from May 2005 showing imprints of singular oil spills in the Southern Baltic Proper. Different marine surface films and accumulated algae at the water surface were taken as tracers for the local motion of the sea surface. Data from sensors working at different electromagnetic bands (e.g. TM and SAR) were used to apply high-speed feature-matching (cross-correlation) techniques for motion detection. The sufficiently short time lags between the multiple image acquisitions (from less than 1 h to approximately 1 day) and the high spatial coverage allowed for the calculation of optical flow (i.e. surface motion) fields, which include small-scale turbulent structures that are not resolved by operational numerical models. Our computed surface currents range from 4 to 35 cm s−1 and are generally larger than those provided by the numerical models for the same dates and areas. We attribute this difference to local wind forcing, causing higher drift velocities at the very sea surface, which is seen from space, but which is not resolved by the numerical models.

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