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Satellite infrared imagery off the California coast, near Pt. Sur, show thermal patterns associated with an upwelling center; the patterns frequently curl cyclonically when interacting with the warmer California Current. This pattern shows sharp thermal fronts, easily identified in satellite IR images, that are strongly correlated with nutrient fronts during the early stages of upwelling. With sea truth data available, it was feasible to calibrate satellite derived sea surface temperature, by applying radiative transfer theory, and to infer nutrient concentrations from their linear inverse correlations with temperature. Thus, it was possible to calibrate satellite thermal fields to produce maps of nutrient distributions. When the inferred relationships were applied over representative regions of the upwelling center, standard deviations of 0.5C, 1.7 microns and 0.1 microns were computed for temperature, nitrate and phosphate, respectively. (Author).

In recent years the study of ocean fronts and eddies has become increasingly important to the U.S. Navy for they are of vital importance in understanding underwater sound transmission. From the history of satellite pictures for the area of the ocean off the central California coast, it appears that cold water which has come to the surface as a result of upwelling has become intertwined within the California Current. The persistent thermal features in the sea surface which are formed were the subject area of this study. Direct telephone contact was established with the satellite receiving station which afforded real time satellite information as to the thermal structure of the sea surface on a mesoscale. This satellite sensed thermal structure was then compared with in situ nutrient and temperature data collected on three cruises on board the research vessel ACANIA. The agreement between the in situ data and the satellite imagery was very strong and the utilization of satellite imagery was shown to be a very effective method to localize an ocean front.

The sea surface temperature field of a 10 x 20 degree area of the North Atlantic is constructed from synoptic temperatures of the ocean surface obtained from High Resolution Infrared Radiometer (HRIR) data from NIMBUS II meteorological satellite. The computer analysis of these satellite data is compared with the computer analysis of three and one half days of conventional ship data produced for the same time period by the Fleet Numerical Weather Central (FNWC), Monterey, California, with a manual analysis of the same ship data prepared by the Fleet Weather Central, Norfolk, Virginia, and with an experimental numerical analysis done by NAVOCEANO. (Author).