Seasonal variations in the region of the Agulhas Retroflection: studies with Geosat and FRAM

Abstract

Seasonal variations in the Agulhas Retroflection region are studied by analyzing data from the radar altimeter, flown on the Geosat satellite, and output from the Fine Resolution Antarctic Model (FRAM). The observations of mesoscale variability from Geosat suggest that any seasonal variation that exists is confined to certain limited areas of the Agulhas Retroflection region. Results from FRAM appear to show no seasonal variability, despite the fact that the model is driven by a seasonally varying wind field. A by-product of this study is a comparison between Geosat observations and FRAM output. This shows that, apart from the issue of seasonal variations, there is reasonable agreement, and that such differences as do exist give insights into how the model might be improved. -Authors