ABSTRACT
We have demonstrated that spatial densities of submesoscale eddies in the Western Mediterranean can be inferred from SAR imagery. Two datasets, EnviSat ASAR imagery acquired in 2009–2011 and Sentinel-1A/B SAR-C imagery acquired in October 2014–September 2016, were used to derive normalized eddy densities, i.e., average numbers of eddy manifestations per SAR image acquired under favorable wind conditions (up to 4.9 ms−1). Our results show some similarities between the two datasets; however, they also show that the observation periods of 2–3 years are not sufficiently long to allow drawing definite conclusions, e.g., on differences caused by the different sensors or acquisition modes, by the different periods or by different operators, who have processed the large amount of SAR images visually.
