Unveiling small-scale ocean circulation through high-resolution Sea Surface Height

The animation shows first the total sea surface height (SSH) using the ECCO 1/24th deg simulation daily SSH maps. It shows that the surface of the ocean is not perfectly flat. The height of the sea surface has highs (red) and lows (blue). The small-scale ocean features become more visible from the anomaly field (deviation from time mean) that the animation shows as a ‘bump’ on the surface. These small-scale features (eddies and internal waves) are associated with strong vertical velocity in the ocean interior below the surface (seen in the animation in the section of the ocean: blue for downward and red for upward).