Application of multi-window maximum cross-correla-tion to the mediterranean sea circulation by using MODIS data

Abstract

Application of multi-window maximum cross-correlation to the mediterranean sea circulation by using MODIS data. © 2017 Bartolomeo Doronzo, et al. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/), permitting all non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. 10 RESEARCH ARTICLEApplication of multi-window maximum cross-correlation to the mediterranean sea circulation by using MODIS data Abstract: In a previous study an improved Maximum Cross-Correlation technique, called Multi-Window MaximumCross-Correlation (MW-MCC), was proposed, and applied to noise-free synthetic images in order to show its potential and limits in oceanographic applications. In this work, instead, the application of MW-MCC to high resolution MODIS images, and its capability to provide useful and realistic results for ocean currents, is studied.When applied to real satellite images, the MW-MCC is subject to cloud cover and image quality problems. As a consequence the number of useful MODIS images is greatly reduced. However, for every MODIS image, multiple spectral bands are available, and it is possible to apply the MW-MCC algorithm to the same scene as many times as the number of these bands, increasing the possibility of finding valid current vectors.Moreover, the comparison among the results from different spectral bands allows to verify both the consistency of the computed current vectors and the validity of using a spectral band as a good tracer for the ocean circulation.Due to the lack of systematic current measurements in the area considered, it has been not possible to perform an ex-