Circulation from In-situ and Remote-sensing data in COastal and Shelf ocean (CIRCOS)

• Applicants: Dr.-Ing. Denise Dettmering; Dr. Marcello Passaro
• Subject Area: Geodesy, Photogrammetry, Remote Sensing, Geoinformatics, Cartography
• Term: since 2020
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 450008353

The objective of CIRCOS is to develop a methodology for improving circulation data sets from satellite altimetry in coastal regions, supported by wind measurements. This information on coastal currents will help in better understanding the underlying processes and in predicting patterns of climate change. Moreover, it will enable better exploitation of marine resources and coastal management. This objective shall be fulfilled by improving the high-frequency content of the existing gridded sea level product by means of (1) blending of the grids with a specific coastal reprocessing of along-track satellite altimetry data from classical and Delay-Doppler missions, (2) statistical combination of satellite altimetry sea level observations with wind stress information in order to enhance the time-space resolution, and (3) studying of the most appropriate spatio-temporal interpolation methods to enhance the possibility of preserving fine scales of variability. For the study area, the Argentine Continental Shelf (ACS), high-resolution maps of sea surface height anomaly covering a period starting in February 2016 will be derived. The new product and the geostrophic velocities derived from it will be used to describe the coastal sea level variability and circulation in relation with the external climate forcing (mainly wind stress) in the ACS. The success of the proposed technique will be evaluated by means of the in-situ data that have been already collected by the CASSIS project in Argentina, and to upcoming measures that are planned during 2021-2022 in the framework of complementary projects. The California Current System (CCS) will be used as a second verification area to benefit from the dense in-situ tide gauge network there to verify how the methodology of this work can be generalized to other coastal areas. The exploitation of the derived circulation information will be valuable for various scientific and social applications. Moreover, the project can be highly significant for the understanding and the verification of the mission objectives of the planned SWOT mission.

• DFG Programme: Research Grants
• International Connection: Argentina, USA
• Cooperation Partners: Dr. Teresa Chereskin; Professor Martin Saraceno