Lesson 6 Ocean Eddies:
Summary and Conclusions

In this lesson you have looked at some of the techniques currently used in the study of ocean eddies. You have seen how Sea Surface Temperature (SST) data and Sea Surface Height Anomaly (SSHA) data may be used synergistically to provide information about current speeds and direction. Using RA-2 as an example you have seen how the basic altimetry data may be used to calculate the SSHA, and how a lower than average SSH (a negative SSHA) corresponds to the cooler temperatures in cold core ocean eddies.

You should now be able to carry out your own studies of ocean eddies. This includes preparing individual satellite images so that they may be combined into a time series of data with the same geographical coordinates, which you can then combine into animations.

Ocean colour data was not included in this lesson. However, many eddies show clearly in images of chlorophyll concentration, and you may find it of interest to look at eddy features using all three types of data - SSHA, SST and chlorophyll.