A RELAXATION LABELING TECHNIQUE FOR COMPUTING SEA-SURFACE VELOCITIES FROM SEA-SURFACE TEMPERATURE

This paper applies a relaxation labeling technique to computing sea su rface advective velocities from sequential satellite sea surface tempe rature (SST) images, The technique first identifies prominent feature points in a pair of time-lapsed SST images, and then estimates sea sur face current velocities by establishing feature point correspondences between the two images. In the context of relaxation labelling operati on we have constructed compatibility coefficient expressing how field spatial smoothness, or coherency, suitable for fluid motion, New resul ts are reported and are compared to those obtained using two other met hods: the geostrophic currents from in situ measurements and the maxim um cross-correlation (MCC) method. The three kinds of velocities are s hown to be consistent to one another.