Combining surface drifters and high resolution global simulations enables the mapping of internal tide surface energy

Combining surface drifters and high resolution global simulations enables the mapping of internal tide surface energy | Research Square window.SnipcartSettings = { analytics: { enabled: false } }; (function() { var accessVector = localStorage.getItem('access_vector') || ''; window.dataLayer = window.dataLayer || []; if (accessVector) { window.dataLayer.push({ user: { profile: { profileInfo: { snid: accessVector } } } }); } })(); (function(w,d,s,l,i){w[l]=w[l]||[];w[l].push({'gtm.start':new Date().getTime(),event:'gtm.js'});var f=d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0],j=d.createElement(s),dl=l!='dataLayer'?'&l='+l:'';j.async=true;j.src='https://www.googletagmanager.com/gtm.js?id='+i+dl;f.parentNode.insertBefore(j,f);})(window,document,'script','dataLayer','GTM-K279D39R'); Browse Preprints In Review Journals COVID-19 Preprints AJE Video Bytes Research Tools Research Promotion AJE Professional Editing AJE Rubriq About Preprint Platform In Review Editorial Policies Our Team Advisory Board Help Center Sign In Submit a Preprint Cite Share Download PDF Article Combining surface drifters and high resolution global simulations enables the mapping of internal tide surface energy Zoé Caspar-Cohen, Aurélien Ponte, Noé Lahaye, Edward D. Zaron, and 4 more This is a preprint; it has not been peer reviewed by a journal. https://doi.org/ 10.21203/rs.3.rs-4583670/v1 This work is licensed under a CC BY 4.0 License Status: Published Journal Publication published 28 Mar, 2025 Read the published version in Scientific Reports → Version 1 posted 10 You are reading this latest preprint version Abstract By dissipating energy and generating mixing, internal tides (ITs) play a major role in the climatological evolution of the ocean. Our understanding of this class of ocean variability is however hindered by the rarity of observations capable of capturing ITs with global coverage. The data provided by the Global Drifter Program (GDP) offer high temporal resolution and quasi-global coverage, thus bringing promising perspectives. However, due to their inherent drifting nature, these instruments provide a distorted view of the IT signal. By theoretically rationalizing this distortion and leveraging a massive synthetic drifter numerical simulation, we are able to map semi-diurnal IT energy levels from GDP data and compare it to three datasets (two numerical simulations, and a satellite altimetry IT atlas). We find that all numerical simulations exhibit biases. Nonetheless, the simulation that benefited from dedicated attention towards ITs representation performs best. This supports renewed efforts in the concurrent numerical modeling of ITs / ocean circulation. The substantial deficit of energy in the IT atlas highlights the inability for altimetric estimates to measure incoherent and finer scale ITs and strongly supports the need to isolate ITs signature in the data collected by the new wide-swath altimetry mission SWOT. Earth and environmental sciences/Ocean sciences/Physical oceanography Earth and environmental sciences/Climate sciences/Ocean sciences/Physical oceanography Full Text Additional Declarations No competing interests reported. Supplementary Files Suppinformation.pdf Cite Share Download PDF Status: Published Journal Publication published 28 Mar, 2025 Read the published version in Scientific Reports → Version 1 posted Editorial decision: Revision requested 07 Oct, 2024 Reviews received at journal 05 Oct, 2024 Reviewers agreed at journal 24 Sep, 2024 Reviews received at journal 22 Aug, 2024 Reviewers agreed at journal 05 Aug, 2024 Reviewers invited by journal 24 Jun, 2024 Editor assigned by journal 20 Jun, 2024 Editor invited by journal 19 Jun, 2024 Submission checks completed at journal 16 Jun, 2024 First submitted to journal 14 Jun, 2024 You are reading this latest preprint version Research Square lets you share your work early, gain feedback from the community, and start making changes to your manuscript prior to peer review in a journal. As a division of Research Square Company, we’re committed to making research communication faster, fairer, and more useful. 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Our understanding of this class of ocean variability is however hindered by the rarity of observations capable of capturing ITs with global coverage. The data provided by the Global Drifter Program (GDP) offer high temporal resolution and quasi-global coverage, thus bringing promising perspectives. However, due to their inherent drifting nature, these instruments provide a distorted view of the IT signal. By theoretically rationalizing this distortion and leveraging a massive synthetic drifter numerical simulation, we are able to map semi-diurnal IT energy levels from GDP data and compare it to three datasets (two numerical simulations, and a satellite altimetry IT atlas). We find that all numerical simulations exhibit biases. Nonetheless, the simulation that benefited from dedicated attention towards ITs representation performs best. This supports renewed efforts in the concurrent numerical modeling of ITs / ocean circulation. 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