Real-time Tandem Mission SSH + SeaWifs
A combination of altimetry and SeaWiFS ocean color imagery (right) shows the evolution of a small anticyclonic eddy in the Drake Passage that formed on the continental slope of the Patagonia shelf just to the southwest of Cape Horn. The feature is about 50 km in diameter and is a 20 cm positive SSH anomaly relative to the surrounding waters. The interleaved TOPEX/Poseidon (left, thin lines) and Jason (thick lines) resolves this fine scale structure. There is remarkable correspondence between the two remote sensing data products, in terms of the location, size and sense of rotation of this eddy. The tandem mission data effectively resolves these small, high latitude features, which otherwise would have been beyond the resolution of either altimeter alone. In this case, it is the interleaved tracks of TOPEX/Poseidon that makes resolution of the fine-scale eddy possible.
