Articles | Volume 15, issue 4
https://doi.org/10.5194/os-15-941-2019
https://doi.org/10.5194/os-15-941-2019
Research article
 | 
17 Jul 2019
Research article |  | 17 Jul 2019

Single super-vortex as a proxy for ocean surface flow fields

Imre M. Jánosi, Miklós Vincze, Gábor Tóth, and Jason A. C. Gallas

Data sets

Blended sea level anomaly fields with enhanced coastal coverage along the U.S. West Coast C. M. Risien and P. T. Strub https://doi.org/10.1038/sdata.2016.13

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Short summary
Mesoscale eddies are ubiquitous swirling flow patterns in the open ocean with diameters of around 100 km. They transport a huge amount of heat and material and are therefore key elements of the “weather” of the ocean. Using satellite-based ocean surface elevation, we found that the combined global effect of all mesoscale eddies can be treated as a single strong “super-vortex”. This finding can be helpful to estimate the energy budget of ocean regions where only sparse field data are available.