"Upper ocean currents"

Wednesday, November 19, 2025 at 12:30pm to 1:30pm

Department of Estuarine and Ocean Sciences

Nick Pizzo
Assistant Professor of Oceanography, University of Rhode Island

Wednesday, November 19, 2025
12:30pm-1:30pm
SMAST E 101-103 and via Zoom

Abstract:

Observing the ocean’s kilometer-scale (i.e.,submesoscale) surface currents has been a long-standing challenge, with direct application to improving weather and climate models, marine navigation and a better understanding of ocean ecosystems. In this talk we review lessons learned measuring these currents during the NASA S-MODE campaign from both in situ assets such as wave gliders and doppler-based remote sensing techniques. The campaign highlighted that these spatially heterogeneous rapidly evolving submesoscale currents are particularly difficult to measure. To overcome this, we introduce Geostationary Ocean Flow (GOFLOW), a deep learning framework that produces hourly, high-resolution velocity fields from sequences of thermal imagery from geostationary satellites. Our approach directly measures the flow without assuming geostrophic balance and inherently filters internal wave noise that contaminates state-of-the-art satellite altimetry (e.g. the recently launched SWOT satellite). Applying GOFLOW to the Gulf Stream, we provide the first satellite-based measurements of submesoscale current statistics, revealing characteristic asymmetries in vorticity and divergence previously documented only in high-resolution circulation models. This ability to routinely map the ocean’s energetic submesoscale currents provides a new data source for advancing Earth system forecasting. 

Join Meeting
https://umassd.zoom.us/j/97440069270

Note: Meeting ID and password required. Email contact to obtain.

SMAST East 101-103 : 836 S. Rodney French Boulevard, New Bedford MA 02744
Callie Rumbut
c.rumbut@umassd.edu
https://umassd.zoom.us/j/97440069270