A combined use of ERS-1 and TOPEX/Poseidon data to study the mesoscale dynamics in the Mediterranean Sea

TOPEX/Poseidon and ERS-1 altimeter data have successfully been used to study the mesoscale field in the Mediterranean Sea and to investigate the seasonal variability of the Sea Level and eddy statistics in this basin. The comparison between the two altimiter performance is very good and underline importance to combine the information of TOPEX/Poseidon and ERS-1 to study the Mediterranean mesoscale eddy field. Sea level anomalies maps every five days were produced using the both data sets by means of sub-optimal interpolation. A comparison between mesoscale features detected by the two altimeters and contemporaneous features observed using Sea Surface Temperature maps definitively proves the direct relation between sea level anomalies and the Mediterranean eddy field.