Marine & Environmental Sciences Faculty Articles
Document Type
Article
Publication Date
8-13-2019
Publication Title
Frontiers in Marine Science
Keywords
Satellite, Air sea interactions, Upper ocean dynamics, Submesoscale, Coastal, Marginal ice zone, Radar, Along-track interferometry
ISSN
2296-7745
Volume
6
Issue/No.
457
First Page
1
Last Page
7
Abstract
High-resolution satellite images of ocean color and sea surface temperature reveal an abundance of ocean fronts, vortices and filaments at scales below 10 km but measurements of ocean surface dynamics at these scales are rare. There is increasing recognition of the role played by small scale ocean processes in ocean-atmosphere coupling, upper-ocean mixing and ocean vertical transports, with advanced numerical models and in situ observations highlighting fundamental changes in dynamics when scales reach 1 km. Numerous scientific publications highlight the global impact of small oceanic scales on marine ecosystems, operational forecasts and long-term climate projections through strong ageostrophic circulations, large vertical ocean velocities and mixed layer re-stratification. Small-scale processes particularly dominate in coastal, shelf and polar seas where they mediate important exchanges between land, ocean, atmosphere and the cryosphere, e.g., freshwater, pollutants. As numerical models continue to evolve toward finer spatial resolution and increasingly complex coupled atmosphere-wave-ice-ocean systems, modern observing capability lags behind, unable to deliver the high-resolution synoptic measurements of total currents, wind vectors and waves needed to advance understanding, develop better parameterizations and improve model validations, forecasts and projections. SEASTAR is a satellite mission concept that proposes to directly address this critical observational gap with synoptic two-dimensional imaging of total ocean surface current vectors and wind vectors at 1 km resolution and coincident directional wave spectra. Based on major recent advances in squinted along-track Synthetic Aperture Radar interferometry, SEASTAR is an innovative, mature concept with unique demonstrated capabilities, seeking to proceed toward spaceborne implementation within Europe and beyond.
NSUWorks Citation
Christine Gommenginger, Bertrand Chapron, Andy Hogg, Christian Buckingham, Baylor Fox-Kemper, Leif Eriksson, Francois Soulat, Clement Ubelmann, Francisco Ocampo-Torres, Bruno Buongiorno Nardelli, David Griffin, Paco Lopez-Dekker, Per Knudsen, Ole Andersen, Lars Stenseng, Neil Stapleton, William Perrie, Nelson Violante-Carvalho, Johannes Schulz-Stellenfleth, David Woolf, Jordi Isern-Fontanet, Fabrice Ardhuin, Patrice Klein, Alexis Mouche, Ananda Pascual, Xavier Capet, Daniele Hauser, Ad Stoffelen, Rosemary Morrow, Lotfi Aouf, Øyvind Breivik, Lee-Leung Fu, Johnny A. Johannessen, Yevgeny Aksenov, Lucy Bricheno, Joel Hirschi, Adrien C. H. Martin, Adrian P. Martin, George Nurser, Jeff Polton, Judith Wolf, Harald Johnsen, Alexander Soloviev, Gregg A. Jacobs, Fabrice Collard, Steve Groom, Vladimir Kudryavtsev, John Wilkin, Victor Navarro, Alex Babanin, Matthew Martin, John Siddorn, Andrew Saulter, Tom Rippeth, Bill Emery, Nikolai Maximenko, Roland Romeiser, Hans Graber, Aida Alvera Azcarate, Chris W. Hughes, Doug Vandemark, Jose da Silva, Peter Jan Van Leeuwen, Alberto Naveira-Garabato, Johannes Gemmrich, Amala Mahadevan, Jose Marquez, Yvonne Munro, Sam Doody, and Geoff Burbidge. 2019. SEASTAR: A Mission to Study Ocean Submesoscale Dynamics and Small-Scale Atmosphere-Ocean Processes in Coastal, Shelf and Polar Seas .Frontiers in Marine Science , (457) : 1 -7. https://nsuworks.nova.edu/occ_facarticles/1015.
DOI
10.3389/fmars.2019.00457
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