title: A daily global mesoscale ocean eddy dataset from satellite altimetry.
abstract: Mesoscale ocean eddies are ubiquitous coherent rotating structures of water with radial scales on the order of 100 kilometers. Eddies play a key role in the transport and mixing of momentum and tracers across the World Ocean. We present a global daily mesoscale ocean eddy dataset that contains ~45 million mesoscale features and 3.3 million eddy trajectories that persist at least two days as identified in the AVISO dataset over a period of 1993-2014. This dataset, along with the open-source eddy identification software, extract eddies with any parameters (minimum size, lifetime, etc.), to study global eddy properties and dynamics, and to empirically estimate the impact eddies have on mass or heat transport. Furthermore, our open-source software may be used to identify mesoscale features in model simulations and compare them to observed features. Finally, this dataset can be used to study the interaction between mesoscale ocean eddies and other components of the Earth System.
authors.affiliation: Department of Computer Science, The University of Minnesota-Twin Cities , Minneapolis, MN, USA ; Department of Population Health Science and Policy, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai , New York, NY, USA.
authors.forename: James H
authors.identifier: 0000-0001-7317-5707
authors.initials: JH
authors.lastname: Faghmous
authors.affiliation: Department of Atmospheric and Oceanic Sciences, Princeton University , Princeton, NJ, USA.
authors.forename: Ivy
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Frenger
authors.affiliation: Department of Computer Science, The University of Minnesota-Twin Cities , Minneapolis, MN, USA.
authors.forename: Yuanshun
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Yao
authors.affiliation: Department of Computer Science, The University of Minnesota-Twin Cities , Minneapolis, MN, USA.
authors.forename: Robert
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Warmka
authors.affiliation: Department of Computer Science, The University of Minnesota-Twin Cities , Minneapolis, MN, USA.
authors.forename: Aron
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Lindell
authors.affiliation: Department of Computer Science, The University of Minnesota-Twin Cities , Minneapolis, MN, USA.
authors.forename: Vipin
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Kumar
mesh_terms: D018534:Earth, Planet; D006358:Hot Temperature; D055904:Meteorology; D009792:Oceans and Seas; D063809:Satellite Imagery; D012623:Seawater; D014872:Water Movements