The future international Surface Water and Ocean Topography (SWOT) Mission, planned for launch in 2021, will make high-resolution 2D observations of sea-surface height using SAR radar interferometric techniques. SWOT will map the global and coastal oceans up to 77.6^∘ latitude every 21 days over a swath of 120 km (20 km nadir gap). Today’s 2D mapped altimeter data can resolve ocean scales of 150 km wavelength whereas the SWOT measurement will extend our 2D observations down to 15–30 km, depending on sea state. SWOT will offer new opportunities to observe the oceanic dynamic processes at scales that are important in the generation and dissipation of kinetic energy in the ocean, and that facilitate the exchange of energy between the ocean interior and the upper layer. The active vertical exchanges linked to these scales have impacts on the local and global budgets of heat and carbon, and on nutrients for biogeochemical cycles. This review paper highlights the issues being addressed by the SWOT science community to understand SWOT’s very precise sea surface height (SSH)/surface pressure observations, and it explores how SWOT data will be combined with other satellite and in situ data and models to better understand the upper ocean 4D circulation (x, y, z, t) over the next decade. SWOT will provide unprecedented 2D ocean SSH observations down to 15–30 km in wavelength, which encompasses the scales of “balanced” geostrophic eddy motions, high-frequency internal tides and internal waves. This presents both a challenge in reconstructing the 4D upper ocean circulation, or in the assimilation of SSH in models, but also an opportunity to have global observations of the 2D structure of these phenomena, and to learn more about their interactions. At these small scales, ocean dynamics evolve rapidly, and combining SWOT 2D SSH data with other satellite or in situ data with different space-time coverage is also a challenge. SWOT’s new technology will be a forerunner for the future altimetric observing system, and so advancing on these issues today will pave the way for our future.

Two methods for the mapping of ocean surface currents from satellite measurements of sea level and future current vectors are presented and contrasted. Both methods rely on the linear and Gaussian analysis framework with different levels of covariance definitions. The first method separately maps sea level and currents with single‐scale covariance functions and leads to estimates of the geostrophic and ageostrophic circulations. The second maps both measurements simultaneously and projects the circulation onto four contributions: geostrophic, ageostrophic rotary, ageostrophic divergent, and inertial. When compared to the first method, the second mapping moderately improves the resolution of geostrophic currents but significantly improves estimates of the ageostrophic circulation, in particular near‐inertial oscillations. This method offers promising perspectives for reconstructions of the ocean surface circulation. Even the hourly dynamics can be reconstructed from measurements made locally every few days because nearby measurements are coherent enough to help fill the gaps. Based on numerical simulation of ocean surface currents, the proposed SKIM mission that combines a nadir altimeter and a Doppler scatterometer with a 300 km wide swath (with a mean revisit time of 3 days) would allow the reconstruction of 50% of the near‐inertial variance around an 18 h period of oscillation.

The nonpersistent phase relationship between internal tides and astronomical forcings, also known as incoherence, has been identified as a major question in the context of future wide‐swath satellite altimetry. This study addresses this issue using a novel set of numerical experiments where a plane wave/low‐mode internal tide propagates through a turbulent mesoscale eddy field. These experiments demonstrate the emergence of internal tide incoherence as the eddy turbulence is strengthened. In strongly turbulent situations, the internal tide signature on sea level forms complex interference patterns with large amplifications of the initial internal wave. These patterns evolve more rapidly than the signature of the turbulent eddy field on sea level. The implications of such idealized numerical simulations for wide‐swath altimetry are discussed.

The surface kinetic energy of a 1/48° global ocean simulation and its distribution as a function of frequency and location are compared with the one estimated from 15,329 globally distributed surface drifter observations at hourly resolution. These distributions follow similar patterns with a dominant low‐frequency component and well‐defined tidal and near‐inertial peaks globally. Quantitative differences are identified with deficits of low‐frequency energy near the equator (factor 2) and at near‐inertial frequencies (factor 3) and an excess of energy at semidiurnal frequencies (factor 4) for the model. Owing to its hourly resolution and its near‐global spatial coverage, the array of surface drifters is an invaluable tool to evaluate the realism of tide‐resolving high‐resolution ocean simulations used in observing system simulation experiments. Sources of bias between model and drifter data are discussed, and associated leads for future work highlighted.

Understanding and predicting how internal tides distort and lose coherence as they propagate through the ocean has been identified as a key issue for interpreting data from the upcoming wide-swath altimeter mission Surface Water and Ocean Topography (SWOT). This study addresses the issue through the analysis of numerical experiments where a low-mode internal tide propagates through a quasigeostrophic turbulent jet. Equations of motion linearized around the slower turbulent field are projected onto vertical modes and assumed to describe the dynamics of the low-mode internal tide propagation. Diagnostics of the terms responsible for the interaction between the wave and the slow circulation are computed from the numerical outputs. The large-scale change of stratification, on top of eddies and jet meanders, contributes significantly to these interaction terms, which is shown to be consistent with an independent scaling analysis. The sensitivity of interaction terms to a degradation of the slow field spatial and temporal resolution indicates that present-day observing systems (Argo network, altimetry) may lack the spatial resolution necessary to correctly predict internal tide evolution. The upcoming SWOT satellite mission may improve upon this situation. The number of vertical modes required to properly estimate interaction terms is discussed. These results advocate development of a simplified model based on solving a modest number of the linearized equations subject to a prescribed mesoscale field and internal tide sources.

The geographical variability, frequency content, and vertical structure of near‐surface oceanic kinetic energy (KE) are important for air‐sea interaction, marine ecosystems, operational oceanography, pollutant tracking, and interpreting remotely sensed velocity measurements. Here, KE in high‐resolution global simulations (HYbrid Coordinate Ocean Model; HYCOM, and Massachusetts Institute of Technology general circulation model; MITgcm), at the sea surface (0 m) and at 15 m, are compared with KE from undrogued and drogued surface drifters, respectively. Global maps and zonal averages are computed for low‐frequency (<0.5 cpd), near‐inertial, diurnal, and semidiurnal bands. Both models exhibit low‐frequency equatorial KE that is low relative to drifter values. HYCOM near‐inertial KE is higher than in MITgcm, and closer to drifter values, probably due to more frequently updated atmospheric forcing. HYCOM semidiurnal KE is lower than in MITgcm, and closer to drifter values, likely due to inclusion of a parameterized topographic internal wave drag. A concurrent tidal harmonic analysis in the diurnal band demonstrates that much of the diurnal flow is nontidal. We compute simple proxies of near‐surface vertical structure—the ratio 0 m KE/(0 m KE + 15 m KE) in model outputs, and the ratio undrogued KE/(undrogued KE + drogued KE) in drifter observations. Over most latitudes and frequency bands, model ratios track the drifter ratios to within error bars. Values of this ratio demonstrate significant vertical structure in all frequency bands except the semidiurnal band. Latitudinal dependence in the ratio is greatest in diurnal and low‐frequency bands.