Environmental Science and Engineering Seminar

The interplay between ocean-surface vector winds and currents plays a fundamental role in weather and climate: winds drive ocean currents, and in turn, surface currents influence the wind and the entire atmospheric boundary layer. While the mechanisms behind wind-current interactions have been inferred from models and from observations that are sparse in time and space, many gaps remain in our understanding. ODYSEA (Ocean Dynamics and Surface Exchange with the Atmosphere) is soon to be proposed as a NASA Earth System Explorer satellite, as a partnership with CNES. In this talk, I'll review the technical underpinnings and scientific case for the mission, which will provide the first-ever measurements of total surface currents in the global ocean along with simultaneous measurements of ocean-surface vector winds. ODYSEA's measurements will provide an unprecedented opportunity to unravel the physical processes underlying small-scale air-sea interaction, and in particular wind–current coupling.