Advective Surface Velocites Derived From Sequential Infrared Images in the Southwestern Atlantic Ocean

摘要

Sequential infrared satellite images between November/1995 and August/1996 have ben used to derive sea surface advective velocities velocities in the southwestern Atlantic using the Maximum Cross-Correlation(MCC) method. The program implemented can be used to obtain vectors based on oceanographic features visualized in the images by an operator or based on a regular pre-established grid. The velocity fields generated in this study corespond to sanpshots of different seasons and show aspects of the surface circulation in the southern Brazilian, Uruguayan and northern Argentinian shelves and in the neighboring ocenic areas, such as in the Brazil-Malvinas Confluence. Despite the rather complex circulation of this oceanic region, the MCC vectors display what the sea surface temperature patterns are responding to and quite agree with other previous studies, which had used direct and hydrographic data or modelling efforts. The major difficulty concerning this technique was related to the corect detection of surface currents in the vicinity of coastilines and clouds.