THE USE OF SATELLITE DERIVED UPPER OCEAN HEAT CONTENT TO THE STUDY OF CLIMATE VARIABILITY IN THE SOUTH ATLANTIC

Abstract

The lack of continuous long-term hydrographic observations, especially in the South Atlantic Ocean, makes satellite-derived data a key tool to investigate time and spatial variability on a basin scale. Altimeter data, which is not affected by cloud coverage as infrared-derived data, provides extremely useful information on the vertical thermal and dynamical structure of the upper ocean when combined with climatological hydrographic data through a diagnostic model. We present a semi-dynamic model that combines sea surface height anomalies from TOPEX/POSEIDON, infrared satellite-derived sea surface temperature from NOAA/AVHRR, and World Ocean Atlas 2001 hydrographic data to generate maps of the Upper Ocean Heat Content Anomaly which are suitable for climate variability studies.

Keywords

• Altimeter data
• SHA
• South Atlantic Thermocline Waters
• upper layer thickness
• two-layer model.