A search for cold water rings

Abstract

SAR imagery obtained by Seasat in the Sargasso Sea during 1978 is examined for cold ring signatures. One orbit on August 26 is thought to have imaged the edge of a cold ring, although the ring's position was not well known at the time. During another orbit on September 23, drifting buoy and expendable bathythermography data furnished conclusive evidence that the ring was centered directly in the SAR swath. Although some suggestive patterns are visible in the images, it is not clear that cold rings can be identified by SAR, even though dynamically similar features, such as the Gulf Stream and warm rings, can be accurately detected. The suggestion is made that cold rings may be imaged inadequately because of their lack of surface temperature gradient.