Overview

The objective of this project is to develop a climatology of certain ocean features in the Gulf of Mexico (GOM) using data sets that span long time periods (i.e., as long as 32 years in some cases) to create the statistics. Twelve (12) separate statistics were created, some of which described characteristics of the Loop Current, while others were involved with warm core eddies that separate from the Loop Current and cold core eddies. The data resources used to create this climatology included analyzed in-situ data from ships of opportunity, from field programs in the GOM, and from the projects managed by the various oil and gas companies. However, the principal data used for this study were satellite remote sensing data, which included sea-surface temperature data from radiometers aboard TIROS-M, HCMM, SEASAT, and the numerous NOAA polar orbiting satellites; ocean color data from the CZCS, which was aboard the Nimbus polar orbiting satellite, SeaWiFS, and MODIS; and altimeter data from the TOPEX/Poseiden and the ERS instruments.