Mesoscale Variability between New York and Bermuda from Repeated XBT Sections and Satellite Altimetry

Abstract

Over a five-year period, 119 XBT sections were made along essentially the same tracks between New York and Bermuda. These data, consisting of 6300 observations, provide a detailed record of Gulf Stream meandering and ring migration. Sea-height variability and surface eddy kinetic energy determined from these data represent the temporal component alone. This is in contrast to mesoscale statistics based on historical data which necessarily combine temporal and spatial variability. Results presented here are therefore analogous to statistics derived from collinear tracks of satellite altimeter data. Comparison with mesoscale variability determined in the same area from three years of Geos-3 altimetry demonstrates basic agreement.