Data & Resources


Regarding the satellite data there is a wide range of oceanic variables that are used to retrieve and validate the surface currents and frontal structures as indicated in Table 1, including sea surface temperature (SST), chlorophyll (Chl) observations, surface geostrophic current, significant wave height and wavelength and propagation direction.

Sensor

Product

Level

Resolution

Data Provider

Sentinel-3 SLSTR SST and SEVIRI

Sea surface temperature/fronts

L2

~ 1 km

EUMETSAT

Sentinel-3 OLCI Chl

Chlorophyll/fronts

L2

~ 300 m

EUMETSAT

Sentinel-3 and Jason altimeters

Surface geostrophic current/fronts

L3

~ 10 km

CLS/Salto Duacs

Sentinel-3 and Jason altimeters

Significant wave height

L3

~ 10 km

CLS/Salto Duacs

Sentinel-2 spectral imager

Wave length - direction/glitter

L2

~ 1 km

ODL

Sentinel-1 A/B SAR

Wave length - direction

L2

~ 1 km

Scihub/ESA

Sentinel-1 SAR Doppler shift

Radial surface current

L3

~ 2 km

Scihub/ESA

CMEMS-Multi-Obs (Global)

All above from Sentinel-3

L3/L4

~ 10 km

CMEMS

Table 1. Key satellite sensor data (level, resolution, provider).
Note that radar altimeter data (wave height) are available in the CMEMS multi-observation data set.

Importantly, these satellite data can often be complemented and collocated with in-situ data allowing comparison of the surface current and frontal structures derived from the satellite data to the Argo floats, surface drifter data, HF-radars and on-board estimates of surface currents as shown in Table 2.

Sensor

Key products/resolution

Coverage

Data providers

HF radars

Surface current/ order km

surface

EMODNET PHYSICS

Loch (ship-based)

Surface current/ tens of meters

surface

CMA CGM (Watch Report)

Argo

Surface current/ ~100 m

surface

CMEMS, Coriolis

Surface drifting buoys

Current/~100m

15m depth

CMEMS, Coriolis

Table 2: In-situ sensor data and providers

Moreover, the satellite and in-situ based observation data are combined and extended with surface current and wave field forecast products offering global and regional coverages at spatial resolutions ranging from 25 km to 2km as shown in Table 3

Product

Coverage

Resolution

Model

Provider

CMEMS-GLOBAL

global

~ 8 km

NEMO

CMEMS

RTOFS

global

~ 8 km

HYCOM

NOAA

GOFS

global

~ 8 km

HYCOM

NRL

MED-CMEMS

Mediterranean Sea

~4 km

NEMO

CMEMS

IBI

Iberian Peninsula & Bay of Biscay

~2 km

NEMO

CMEMS

GlobCurrent*

global

~ 25 km

Geo/Ekman 

CMEMS

Wave Model

global

~ 10 km

MFWAM

MeteoFrance

Table 3: Complementary model-based surface current fields. *The GlobCurrent fields is an interpolated regular global surface current product derived from satellite data. Geostrophic balance and Ekman current estimation applied.

Routing optimization tool.
An innovative tool to provide value-added surface current products (see Figure 1) derived from available forecasts as well as from satellite-based and in-situ observations. A series of post-processing routines are implemented to provide the optimized surface current product using a metrics defined to qualify the surface current forecast performances at each in-situ measurement and collocated satellite-based location. In so doing, the comparison of models with satellite derived sea surface temperature and surface geostrophic current is used to assess the ability of the ocean models to locate the mesoscale structures (e.g. eddies, meanders fronts).

 

Figure 1. Schematic illustration of the key TOPVOYS tools (GeoSPaaS, SEAScope and Actiroute)
and their integration for ship routing optimization.