Detection of wave fronts in the Indian Ocean from geostationary sunglint satellite imagery

International audienceWe demonstrate the potential of monitoring coherent wave fronts on the tropical ocean surface using an advanced detection algorithm applied to visible sunglintaffected imagery from geostationary satellites. Data from MeteoSat are processed with the advanced analysis technique to reveal transient wave activity near and to the west of the Mascarene Ridge of the western Indian Ocean. The technique is based on a wavelet-based singularity analysis which enhances the subtle but highly coherent wave patterns in the meteorological satellite data. It is likely that the patterns represent internal ocean waves, a pathway to ocean mixing and climate. The prospect for using this detection algorithm in greatly expanded satellite global surveys of wave activity is outlined

Detection of wave fronts in the Indian Ocean from geostationary sunglint satellite imagery

10 pages, 4 figuresWe demonstrate the potential of monitoring coherent wave fronts on the tropical ocean surface using an advanced detection algorithm applied to visible sunglint-affected imagery from geostationary satellites. Data from MeteoSat are processed with the advanced analysis technique to reveal transient wave activity near and to the west of the Mascarene Ridge of the western Indian Ocean. The technique is based on a wavelet-based singularity analysis which enhances the subtle but highly coherent wave patterns in the meteorological satellite data. It is likely that the patterns represent internal ocean waves, a pathway to ocean mixing and climate. The prospect for using this detection algorithm in greatly expanded satellite global surveys of wave activity is outlinedThis is a contribution to the IMAGEN (Spanish R+D Plan: REN2001-0802-C02-02) and MERSEA projects (EU AIP3-CT-2003-502885). A. Turiel is funded by a Ramón y Cajal contract from the Spanish Ministry of Education. J. Isern-Fontanet is funded by a post-doctoral grant by the Spanish Ministry of Education. J. Young’s visit to ICM was provided by a sabbatical and Graduate School WARF funding from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. We thank EUMETSAT for leaving us their dataPeer reviewe