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Remote Sensing of the African Seas pp 357–378Cite as

Eddies in the Red Sea as seen by Satellite SAR Imagery

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Abstract

We present the results of our observations of mesoscale and sub-mesoscale eddies in the Red Sea based on Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) imagery. The dataset used includes about 500 Envisat Advanced SAR (ASAR) images obtained in 2006–2011 over the Red Sea. We found more than 1,000 sub-mesoscale eddies, which manifest in the SAR imagery both due to surfactant films (“black” eddies) and wave/current interactions (“white” eddies), depending on the local wind speed. Sub-mesoscale eddies in the Red Sea seem to be more innumerous than in other inner seas, presumably due to a relatively deep upper mixed layer in this basin. Moreover, more than 50 meso- and basin-scale eddies were found, whose rotation was mostly anti-cyclonic and whose diameters ranged up to approximately 200 km. Most of the basin-scale eddies were found between 21 and 24°N, which is in agreement with earlier observations and with numerical modeling.

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Acknowledgments

This work was supported within the framework of the Federal Target Program “Scientific and scientific-pedagogical personnel of innovative Russia” in 2009–2013. The data used for the present study were kindly provided by ESA under project ID 14120 (SESAMeSEA).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Space Research Institute, Russian Academy of Sciences, Moscow, Russia

    Svetlana S. Karimova

  2. Institut für Küstenforschung, Helmholtz-Zentrum Geesthacht, Zentrum für Material- und Küstenforschung GmbH, Geesthacht, Germany

    Svetlana S. Karimova

  3. Institut für Meereskunde, Universität Hamburg, Hamburg, Germany

    Martin Gade

Authors
  1. Svetlana S. Karimova
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  2. Martin Gade
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Svetlana S. Karimova .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. TP272, Joint Research Centre European Commission, Ispra, Italy

    Vittorio Barale

  2. Institut für Meereskunde, University of Hamburg, Hamburg, Germany

    Martin Gade

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Karimova, S., Gade, M. (2014). Eddies in the Red Sea as seen by Satellite SAR Imagery. In: Barale, V., Gade, M. (eds) Remote Sensing of the African Seas. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-017-8008-7_18

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