Identification of modeled ocean plumes in Greenland gyre ERS-1 SAR data

Oceanic convective plumes modeled with a thermobaric large-eddy simulation and driven by conditions similar to those of the Greenland Sea are compared to observations from ERS-1 Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) data from the Greenland Sea for the winter of 1992. In both form and size the two representations are seen to compare favorably. The plume-filled area of the SAR image occupies a region about 20 km by 90 km at the ice edge of the open water in 'Nordbukta', the large seasonal ice retreat, in the 'Odden' ice protuberance in the southern Greenland gyre. In the SAR data the plumes appear to be ice covered while the convective-return areas are open.