Satellite altimetry allows sustained observations of a wide range of ocean dynam-ics, from features spanning just a few tens of km to the mean global sea level spatially, and from a few days to decades temporally, with profound repercus-sions on our knowledge of the oceans and how they affect climate. Amongst the many success stories for altimetry, one particularly dear to ocean dynamicists is the systematic detection, characterization and tracking of large- and meso-scale prop-agating features, virtually ubiquitous in the world's oceans, and their classification as either planetary waves or eddies, which has involved significant efforts by several research groups. In this chapter we review (in Section 12.3) the main results of these efforts, and highlight the important implications that those findings have had on our understanding of how the ocean works. We also discuss (in Section 12.4) several intriguing questions that have been prompted by the satellite-based observations of propagating features – sometimes challenging the previous knowledge based on insufficient experimental data, other times opening completely new paths of investigation into scientifically uncharted waters. But first we start (in Section 12.2) with a brief explanation of the importance of propagating systems for oceans and climate.
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