Improved Surface Velocity and Trajectory Estimates in the Gulf of Mexico from Blended Satellite Altimetry and Drifter Data

AbstractThis study investigates the results of blending altimetry-based surface currents in the Gulf of Mexico with available drifter observations. Here, subsets of trajectories obtained from the near-simultaneous deployment of about 300 Coastal Ocean Dynamics Experiment (CODE) surface drifters provide both input and control data. The fidelity of surface velocity fields are measured in the Lagrangian frame by a skill score that compares the separation between observed and hindcast trajectories to the observed absolute dispersion. Trajectories estimated from altimetry-based velocities provide satisfactory average results (skill score > 0.4) in large (~100 km) open-ocean structures. However, the distribution of skill score values within these structures is quite variable. In the DeSoto Canyon and on the shelf where smaller-scale structures are present, the overall altimeter skill score is typically reduced to less than 0.2. After 3 days, the dataset-averaged distance between hindcast and drifter trajectorie...

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