Application of synchronous meteorological satellite data to the study of time dependent sea surface temperature changes along the boundary of the Gulf Stream

Abstract

Thermal infrared imagery from the Synchronous Meteorological Satellite (SMS), located above the equator at 75°W, was used to produce a time‐lapse film of the Gulf Stream off Florida. Northward propagating cyclonic eddies with a speed of 39 cm/sec, spacial scale of 265 km, and low frequency (ω/f <0.15), where ω is a wave frequency and f is the Coriolis parameter, were detected at the inshore edge of the current's boundary. These results demonstrate an application of the SMS to the study of time dependent sea surface thermal patterns.