The Xiamen Symposium on Marine Environmental Sciences

2027 Xiamen Symposium on Marine Environmental Sciences

January 12-15, 2027

A Snapshot-Based Decomposition of Balanced–Unbalanced Motions from SWOT Observations
ID:988 Oral Presentation

2027-01-14 14:30 (China Standard Time)

Session:Session 9 - Ocean Dynamics in the SWOT Era: New Methods, Discoveries, Insights and Challenges

Abstract
The Surface Water and Ocean Topography (SWOT) mission has, for the first time, provided ocean observations at submesoscale resolution. While this unprecedented capability offers remarkable opportunities to resolve fine-scale oceanic structures, it also poses a fundamental challenge that how to separate oceanic motions associated with distinct dynamical regimes. In this study, a deep learning approach is trained using numerical simulations and subsequently transferred to SWOT snapshot observations to decompose sea surface height (SSH) signals associated with balanced motions (BM) and unbalanced motions (UBM). Results demonstrate that the proposed method achieves robust performance for both single-pass and an entire-cycle SWOT SSH observations. Using the extracted BM component, geostrophic sea surface velocity (SSV) are reconstructed, exhibiting strong agreement with DUACS products. These results highlight the reliability and physical plausibility of the proposed approach, which provides essential methodological support for the dynamical interpretation of high-resolution SWOT observations.
Speaker
Zhanwen Gao Laoshan Laboratory

Author
Zhanwen Gao Laoshan Laboratory

    Important Dates

    • Jan 30

      2026

      Session / Event proposals open

    • Mar 31

      2026

      Session / Event proposals close
      (Extended to April 7)

    • Apr 30

      2026

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    • Apr 30

      2026

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    • Jun 30

      2026

      Abstract submissions close
      (Extended to July 21)

    • Aug 31

      2026

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    • Sep 15

      2026

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    • Oct 15

      2026

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    • Jan 12–15

      2027

      XMAS 2027