UC San Diego

The East Greenland Current (EGC) and the East Greenland Coastal Current (EGCC) are part of the North Atlantic Ocean circulation system that carries cold fresh melting water from the Arctic southward to the Subpolar North Atlantic region; hence, determining the variability and the drivers of these currents can help scientists to develop a better understanding of the circulation and climate in the Northern Hemisphere. In this study, we compare velocity from Acoustic Doppler Current Profilers (ADCP) data (2016-2020) from the Overturning in the Subpolar North Atlantic Program (OSNAP) moorings deployed near the Cape Farewell, at the southern tip of Greenland, with the geostrophic velocity derived from satellite altimeter data from AVISO that measures the sea level anomalies (SLA). The goal is to determine which part of the moored observed variability can be derived from the altimeter data. It is found that the seasonal variability observed via the two methods is similar. Similarly, the magnitude of across flow velocity anomaly of the two data sets are the same, but the along flow velocity anomaly computed from the satellite altimeter data is slightly smaller than that of the mooring data. Overall, our results suggest that the satellite altimeter is a complementary tool for ocean circulation observation at high latitudes where moorings are not deployed.