Variability of the near‐surface eddy kinetic energy in the California Current based on altimetric, drifter, and moored current data

Low‐pass‐filtered velocities obtained from World Ocean Circulation Experiment (WOCE) surface drifters deployed in the California Current off northern California during 1993–1995 have been compared with surface geostrophic velocity estimates made along subtracks of the TOPEX/POSEIDON altimeter and with moored acoustic Doppler current profiler (ADCP) data. To obtain absolute geostrophic velocities, a mean sea surface height (SSH) field was estimated using the mean drifter velocities and historical hydrographic data and was added to the altimetric SSH anomalies. The correlation between collocated drifter and altimetric velocities is 0.73, significant at the 95% level. The component of the drifter velocity which was uncorrelated with the altimetric velocity was correlated with the wind in the Ekman transport sense. Monthly averages of eddy kinetic energy (EKE), estimated using all drifter and altimeter data within the domain (124°–132°W, 33°–40.5°N), show energy levels for the drifters that are about 13% greater than those for the altimeter. Drifter, altimeter, and ADCP measurements all exhibit similar seasonal cycles in EKE, with the altimeter data reaching maximum values of about 0.03 m 2 s −2 in late summer/fall. Wavenumber spectra of the altimeter velocity indicate that the velocity fluctuations were dominated by features with wavelengths of 240–370 km, while the ADCP data suggest that the temporal scales of these fluctuations are at least several months. Between 36° and 40.5°N, the region of monthly maximum EKE migrates westward to about 128°W on a seasonal timescale. This region of maximum EKE coincides with the maximum zonal SSH gradient, with increased EKE associated with increased southward flow. A simple model shows that much of the seasonal cycle of the SSH anomalies can be produced by linear processes forced by the curl of the wind stress, although the model cannot explain the offshore movement of the front.