Evaluating the performance of HY-2 satellite altimeter fusion products in detecting mesoscale eddies

Abstract The altimeter data from the HY-2 satellites have contributed to the detection of the dynamic marine environment. However, relatively few mesoscale eddy studies have been conducted using HY-2 satellite altimeter fusion products, mainly because of the lack of assessments of their ability to identify the mesoscale features of eddies. For example, the mesoscale eddy feature detection of regional altimeter fusion products is still poorly understood. In this study, the HY-2 satellite global altimeter fusion product (HY-global) and HY-2 satellite regional altimeter fusion product (HY-region) were compared with the AVISO product. We comprehensively assessed the ability of HY-2 satellite altimeter fusion products to capture mesoscale eddy characteristics in terms of eddy number, radius, kinetic energy, and trajectory. The results show that HY-global is more consistent with AVISO than HY-region, whereas HY-region describes a larger number of eddies and eddies with a smaller radius. These results provide a reference for future studies on mesoscale eddies using HY-2 satellite altimeter fusion products.