SOFT feature-tracking software handbook

This handbook (SOFT_WP31_handbook.pdf) describes the suite of MATLAB programs developed within Work Package 3, task 3.1 of the SOFT Project, for the tracking of large-scale, westward propagating features (planetary waves or westward-travelling eddies) in altimeter data and the removal of the identified features from the datasets. The suite has been applied to TOPEX/POSEIDON data over the Azores region (one of the SOFT study regions) but its modularity makes it adaptable in a straightforward way to other datasets and other regions. The companion to this handbook is the progress report on task 3.1 released in January 2003 (SOFT_WP31_report.pdf), which presents the rationale to the study and gives ample details on the scheme adopted for the fitting of elementary waves (according to a Gaussian wave shape model) to altimeter data. A synopsis of the fitting scheme is briefly recalled in the following sections of this document, for the benefit of the reader. All the code listings are in the appendix. The forecasting of the westward-propagating fields (which is the object of task 3.2 in Work Package 3 id described in version 1 of another report, SOFT_WP32_rep1.pdf)