Researchers at Florida State University have announced a new methodology to provide more accurate oceanographic and hydrological data.
The latest project is a joint mission between NASA and the French space agency CNES. It uses the Surface Water and Ocean Topography (SWOT) satellite to measure fine-scale ocean circulation, which is essential for tracking how the ocean absorbs heat and carbon.
Historically, subsurface waves mimic the very features scientists aim to study, creating interference that was previously considered too erratic to correct. However, by leveraging the US Navy’s Hybrid Coordinate Ocean Model (HYCOM), researchers developed a method to predict and remove these “chaotic” signals by accurately tracking the ocean’s evolving state.
Commenting on the work, the study lead author Yadidya Badarvada, a researcher at FSU’s Center for Ocean-Atmospheric Prediction Studies, who completed the work at FSU and while a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Michigan, stated:
“SWOT is giving us the clearest view we have ever had of the ocean’s fine-scale circulation, the small eddies and currents that govern how much heat and carbon the ocean draws down from the atmosphere. But those measurements have been partially obscured by internal tides, which mimic the very features we are trying to observe. What this work shows is that the interference we assumed was too chaotic to fix is actually predictable, once you have a model that accurately tracks the evolving ocean state.”
Discussing why the latest development is important, he added:
“We can’t deploy buoys across the entire globe to take measurements. The information from SWOT fills a huge gap in our understanding of the physics and dynamics that govern the ocean and how it transports heat and nutrients on a massive scale. We used a model the Navy built to navigate the ocean and ended up giving NASA’s most advanced ocean satellite significantly clearer eyes. That kind of unexpected overlap between defense science and Earth observation is exactly what this project has been about.”