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UP: Fachverband Umweltphysik

UP 5: Postersession

UP 5.25: Poster

Tuesday, March 14, 2017, 16:40–18:10, GW2 B3010

detection and variability of frontal structures in the North-West Atlantic from satellite observations — •Aleksei Buinyi¹, Dagmar Kieke¹, and Paul Myers² — ¹MARUM/IUP, University of Bremen, Bremen, Germany — ²Department of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences, University of Alberta, Edmonton, Alberta, Canada

The Subpolar North Atlantic (SPNA) is known as one of the climate relevant regions of the world's oceans. This region receives both warm and salty water masses of tropical/subtropical origin that are being transported to higher latitudes as well as cold and fresh waters from polar latitudes being transported southward. As a consequence, front formation takes place at the "meeting point" of these water masses. The present study deals with the analysis of Sea Surface Temperature (SST) and AVISO altimetry datasets in the western part of SPNA with the aim of detecting oceanic fronts and eddies and determining their shape, strength and location. Both datasets have a spatial resolution of 0.25°x0.25°, temporal resolution of one day, cover the time interval from 1993 to 2015. We examine the region bounded by longitudes 65°W-35°W and latitudes 35°N-65°N. For the detection of the fronts an algorithm based on the so-called gradient method was applied. Identifying the position of the highest SST gradients allows us to allocate thermal fronts. Dynamic topography fields from AVISO are used to detect dynamic fronts as places of divergence or convergence of velocity fields. As a result, usage of different data sources allows us to detect fronts with higher rate of evidence and get information about their genesis and variability.