Estimation of geostrophic current in the Red Sea based on Sea level anomalies derived from extended satellite altimetry data

Abstract. The geostrophic currents data near the coast of the Red Sea has a large gap. Due to that the sea level anomaly (SLA) data of Jason-2 has been reprocessed and extended towards the coast of the Red Sea and merged with AVISO data at the center of the Red Sea. The processing has been applied to build a grid data to achieve best results for the SLA and geostrophic current. The results obtained from the new extended data at the coast are more consistent with the observed data hence geostrophic current calculation. The estimated geostrophic current match well with that estimated for observed CTD data. The pattern of SLA distribution and geostrophic currents are divided into two seasons; Winter season extends from October to May and Summer from June to September. The geostrophic currents along the eastern Red Sea flow toward north and southward along the west coast. This flow is modified with the presence of the cyclonic and anticyclonic eddies, which are more concentrated at the central and northern side of the Red Sea. The study has shown anticyclonic eddies (AE) on the eastern side of the Red Sea, while cyclonic eddies (CE) on the west side during Winter. During Summer the (CE) are along the eastern side and (AE) along the western side.