Global characteristics of Rossby wave propagation from multiple satellite datasets

This paper presents a study of the global characteristics of extra-tropical oceanic Rossby waves from datasets of Sea Surface Height (SSH), Sea Surface Temperature (SST) and ocean colour. We deal in particular with the propagation speed of the waves and compare the observational results with the speeds predicted by the classical theory and by an extended theory of Rossby waves. We also discuss, with an example, the additional information that can be derived by a comparison of the wave signatures in the different datasets.