The Feasibility of Dynamic Height Determination from Moored Temperature Sensors

Abstract

The existence of a tight T-S relationship in the southwestern North Atlantic is used to convert temperature measurements from moored sensors to dynamic heights. Seven hydrographic cruises with intensive CTD coverage during 1980?81 allow us to establish a close correlation between temperature and specific volume anomaly, which then is integrated vertically as a function only of temperature to derive dynamic heights. The systematic errors arising from the method are smaller than the natural variability of temperature from the mesoscale field.