Experimental Estimation of Horizontal Velocity and Vertical Structure of Floating Anticyclones Based on the Quasi-geostrophic Approximation

This study presents an alternative experimental method to obtain geostrophic surface velocities. The method is applied for the first time in a series of experiments with floating lenticular anticyclones in a rotating fluid. For generation of the vortex, we use the injection method. The surface geostrophic velocities field is obtained from a single snapshot of density obtained by means of the planar laser-induced fluorescence (PLIF) method. The theory is based on the quasi-geostrophic approximation of the surface through buoyancy field measured with PLIF. The free surface height and vortex depth and shape are obtained. Our results compare well with correlations higher than 85% between our method and horizontal velocities obtained with PIV and vertical measurements obtained through profilometry. The laboratory methodology is compared with GLORYS12V1 reanalysis data from surface dynamical fields of a particular vortex in the Mexican Coastal Current.