Notes on “Mesoscale eddies northeast of the Hawaiian archipelago from satellite altimeter observations” by Chen and Qiu (2010)

• SSH is high-pass filtered (250 days).
• SSH has the lowest error since January 2000.
• The geostrophic flow does not have too much seasonality but the stratification does. When the stratification is the weakest in late windter (Feb.-March), the baroclinic instability has the largest growth rate. The peak in EKE then appears 2 to 3 months later, the time for the instabilities to grow to finite amplitude.

About the part on Chl

• Positive correlation between SSH and Chl where Chl is decreasing northward –northern half of the summer bloom region. Negative correlations otherwise.
• Was the correlation performed on one single time series?
• For the regions where the Chl is negligible, how can we be sure that the correlation is meaningful?