Relationships between Remotely-Sensed Surface Properties and Subsurface Structure in the Ocean

摘要

The analyses of historical temperature-depth data from the California Current and recent surface and Expendable Bathythermograph(XBT) data from the Gulf of California have demonstrated that surface variables measurable by remote sensors do provide information about subsurface structure. However, estimates of subsurface structure based on empirical relationships are valid only regionally (coastal areas of 100's of km) and are of limited reliability. A vertical model like the one developed here can be a powerful tool in studying the physical and biological mechanisms that produce empirical surface-subsurface relationships. Ultimately, such a model could serve as the basis for a scheme to maintain continuously-updated estimates of subsurface structure. The estimates would be nowcasted by the model using surface variables (e.g. surface temperature and color) and physical driving variables (e.g. winds, back radiation and cloudiness) monitored continuously by remote sensing.