Abstract's details
Orographic waves signatures in SWOT KaRIn data
Event: 2025 SWOT Science Team Meeting
Session: Oceanography: Wind and Waves
Presentation type: Oral
The new Surface Water and Ocean Topography (SWOT) altimetry mission launched at the end of 2022 is an opportunity to access ocean variability at scales extending below 30 km and to better understand the high-frequency dynamic processes involved. The analysis of SWOT 2-dimensions observations during the Calval (1-day orbit) allowed detecting in several regions, very small-scale patterns both visible in the retrodiffusion coefficient and in the SSHA of the smoothed and unsmoothed products.
The study described here focuses on the SWOT track 16 from CALVAL orbit located north of Baleares Islands in the Mediterranean Sea. We analyzed the very small-scale patterns detected in SWOT SSHA and the correlation with the local meteorological parameters and the global Dynamic Atmospheric Correction (DAC) signal.
The sigma0 and surface patterns appear correlated with strong winds coming from northern Spain’s coast and are likely forced by atmospheric Lee waves. The atmospheric corrections provided in the L3 V2.0.2 products are based on the ECMWF global model and they do not have enough spatial resolution to represent such small phenomena. Some very high-resolution meteorological model outputs (AROME, Météo-France) avec been used and reveal the presence of similar small-scale waves signatures in several atmospheric parameters: pressure, wind and the integral column water vapor. AROME data allowed calculating the inverse barometer correction (IB), the wet troposphere correction (WTC) and some wind-effects all showing a good correlation with the SWOT SSHA patterns, although model wavelengths are slightly longer than those observed in SWOT.
Some complementary investigations are on-going to analyze the KaRIn Significant Wave Height parameter and new estimations of the SWOT KaRIn Sea State Bias correction: both show similar small-scale patterns but more verifications are needed to check the realism of these signals.
We propose to present a summary of the study carried out and the investigations in progress.
The study described here focuses on the SWOT track 16 from CALVAL orbit located north of Baleares Islands in the Mediterranean Sea. We analyzed the very small-scale patterns detected in SWOT SSHA and the correlation with the local meteorological parameters and the global Dynamic Atmospheric Correction (DAC) signal.
The sigma0 and surface patterns appear correlated with strong winds coming from northern Spain’s coast and are likely forced by atmospheric Lee waves. The atmospheric corrections provided in the L3 V2.0.2 products are based on the ECMWF global model and they do not have enough spatial resolution to represent such small phenomena. Some very high-resolution meteorological model outputs (AROME, Météo-France) avec been used and reveal the presence of similar small-scale waves signatures in several atmospheric parameters: pressure, wind and the integral column water vapor. AROME data allowed calculating the inverse barometer correction (IB), the wet troposphere correction (WTC) and some wind-effects all showing a good correlation with the SWOT SSHA patterns, although model wavelengths are slightly longer than those observed in SWOT.
Some complementary investigations are on-going to analyze the KaRIn Significant Wave Height parameter and new estimations of the SWOT KaRIn Sea State Bias correction: both show similar small-scale patterns but more verifications are needed to check the realism of these signals.
We propose to present a summary of the study carried out and the investigations in progress.
Contribution: ST2025OS4-Orographic_waves_signatures_in_SWOT_KaRIn_data.pdf (pdf, 1321 ko)
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