ORIGINAL RESEARCH article

Front. Mar. Sci.

Sec. Physical Oceanography

Volume 12 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fmars.2025.1577339

Trends and Innovations in Ocean Mesoscale Eddy studies via Satellite Observation: a bibliometric review

Provisionally accepted
Fan  XuFan Xu1*Zhiqiang  WenZhiqiang Wen2Huimin  WangHuimin Wang3Tong  LiTong Li4,5Xiufang  SongXiufang Song6,7Hao  PengHao Peng6,7*
  • 1School of Mathematics and Maxwell Institute for Mathematical Sciences, University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh, Scotland, United Kingdom
  • 2College of Earth and Planetary Sciences, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China
  • 3College of Marine Ecology and Environment, Shanghai Ocean University, Shanghai, China
  • 4Centre for Planetary Health and Food Security, Griffith University, Nathan, Queensland, Australia
  • 5School of Environment and Science, Griffith Sciences, Griffith University, Nathan, Queensland, Australia
  • 6National Science Library, Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), Beijing, Beijing Municipality, China
  • 7University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, Beijing, China

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

Ocean mesoscale eddies play a crucial role in global ocean circulation, heat transport, and biogeochemical processes. Satellite altimetry has become a foundation in observing and analyzing these dynamic phenomena, offering high-resolution, global coverage of sea level anomalies. This bibliometric review investigates the trends and innovations in mesoscale eddy research using satellite altimetry data over the past decades. Based on Web of Science, VOSviewer, and CiteSpace, we analyze publication growth, geographical and institutional contributions, keyword co-occurrence, and citation networks.Key innovations such as advanced data assimilation, multi-satellite collaboration, and integration with machine learning models are highlighted. Finally, we discuss future opportunities of next-generation altimetry missions like SWOT for mesoscale eddy dynamics. This review serves as a comprehensive guide for researchers exploring mesoscale eddies and satellite-based ocean observations.

Keywords: mesoscale eddies, satellite observation, bibliometric analysis, Web of Science (WOS), VOSviewer

Received: 15 Feb 2025; Accepted: 30 Jun 2025.

Copyright: © 2025 Xu, Wen, Wang, Li, Song and Peng. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

* Correspondence:
Fan Xu, School of Mathematics and Maxwell Institute for Mathematical Sciences, University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh, EH8 9BT, Scotland, United Kingdom
Hao Peng, National Science Library, Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), Beijing, 100190, Beijing Municipality, China

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