Re: Kuroshio Tomography & Altimetry Poster - Yuan et al.

Subject:

Comments:
: : The acoustic and altimetric results are combined here in a : : simple way that facilitates the interpretation - a "back of : : the envelope" two-layer inversion. The results (with this : : simple model) show that the flow in the Kuroshio extension : : region can be explained by 1 degree of freedom in the : : vertical, while in the recirculation gyre two degrees of : : freedom are required with barotropic flow playing an important : : role. With the simple model it is clear that horizontal : : advection must play a role in the recirculation gyre in order : : to balance the heat budget. : : While the "comparison between tomographic derived temperature : : anomaly is good for T3-T4 Kuroshio Extension front region?quot; it : : will be the more subtle differences that will be important : : when trying to understand cross-frontal fluxes and higher : : order dynamics and thermodynamics. : : Evidence of change in the vertical temperature structure over : : time can be seen in the low-frequency sum travel time plots - : : for instance in d (T3-T4), the various ray travel times spread : : between day 230 and 240. : : It will be very interesting when a complete inversion of all : : the data is performed, that includes all the data, a more : : sohisticated ocean parameterization/modeling, and error : : estimates. : : The acoustic data looks very clean. In the dot plot of raw : : travel times, b, there appear to be somewhat intermittent ray : : arrivels (452.5 s for example). Are they surface bounce rays : : that come and go? : Dear Bruce, : Thank you for your comment. : I like very much for your comment on the simple two layer model for inversion: a "back of"the envelope" two-layer inversion. : Yes, they are surface bounce rays. But I counld not obtain those rays from the forward problem : ray tracing, so I did not employ them in inversion at present. I will try to use these kind of rays in future tomogrpahy analysis. : Thanks, : Gang