A relaxation labeling technique for computing sea surface velocities from sea surface temperature

The paper applies a relaxation labeling technique to computing sea surface advective velocities from sequential satellite sea surface temperature (SST) images. The technique first identifies prominent feature points in a pair of time-lapsed SST images, and then estimates sea surface current velocities by establishing feature point correspondences between the two images. In the context of relaxation labelling operation the authors have constructed a compatibility coefficient expressing flow field spatial smoothness, or coherency, suitable for fluid motion. New results are reported and are compared to those obtained using two other methods: the geostrophic currents from in situ measurements and the maximum cross-correlation (MCC) method. The three kinds of velocities are shown to be consistent to one another.>