Richard Legeckis

Satellite Oceanography & Climatology Division

Ocean Physics Branch
Research Scientist

Recent Publications

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photo: Richard Legeckis Richard Legeckis received a B.S. degree in electrical engineering from the City College of New York in 1965 and worked for five years for Grumman Aircraft at Cape Kennedy, Florida on the NASA Apollo Project to land a man on the moon. He earned degrees in physical oceanography from Florida Institute of Technology (M.S. 1968) and from Florida State University (Ph.D. 1974). He joined NOAA as an NRC associate in 1974 and an employee in 1975. He was Chief of the Oceanic Sciences Branch 1986-1996 and an Oceans Team Leader 1997-1998. This was an exciting era and many ocean phenomena were revealed for the first time from polar and geostationary orbiting satellites. His early contributions included the discoveries of the Tropical Instability Waves (TIW) at a sea surface temperature front in the eastern equatorial Pacific and the influence of bottom topography and the earth's rotation in diverting the path of the Gulf Stream along the coast of North and South Carolina, starting at the Charleston Bump.

He collaborated with many scientists and promoted the applications of satellite data for ocean observations. He participated in the Committee on Data Management and Computation (CODMAC) of the Space Sciences Board of the National Academy of Sciences 1978-80, the NASA Pilot Ocean Data System (PODS) Committee 1982-83, Associate Editor of the Journal of Geophysical Research in the area of oceanic applications of remote sensing 1983-91, the Pathfinder Science Working Group 1990-91 and the NPOESS - VIIRS Operational Algorithm Team 1999-2004. He is now involved in sea surface temperature products from the next generation geostationary satellites operated by EUMETSAT (MSG) and NOAA (GOES-R) as well as global ocean surface currents analyzed from Altimeter sea level and Scatterometer wind measurements. The ocean currents (OSCAR project) are available on the web at http://www.oscar.noaa.gov.

Selected Publications

Brown, C.W., L.N. Connor, J.L. Lillibridge, N.R. Nalli, and R.V. Legeckis. 2005. An Introduction to satellite sensors, observations and techniques. In: Miller, R.L., C. E. Del Castillo, and B. A. McKee, Remote Sensing of Coastal Aquatic Environments, Springer, New York, Pp 21-50.

Legeckis, R., C.B. Brown, F. Bonjean and E.S. Johnson, 2004. Satellites reveal the influence of Equatorial Currents and Tropical Instability Waves on the drift of the Kon-Tiki in the Pacific. Oceanography, 17(4), 166 - 175.

Legeckis, R., C.B. Brown, F. Bonjean and E.S. Johnson, 2004. The influence of tropical instability waves and phytoplankton blooms in the wake of the Marquesas Islands during 1998 and on the currents observed during the drift of the Kon-Tiki in 1947. Geophy. Res. Letters, 31, L23307, 1-4.

Legeckis, R., C.W.Brown, and P.S.Chang 2002. Geostationary satellites reveal motions of ocean surface fronts. J. Marine Systems, Special Issue on Ocean Fronts (Elsevier), I. Belkin, Editor, Vol. 37/1-3, 3-15.

Legeckis, R. and T. Zhu 1997: Sea Surface Temperatures from the GOES-8 Geostationary Satellite, Bull. American Met. Society, 78 (9), 1971-1983.

Geyer, W.R., R.C. Beardsley, J. Candela, B.M. Castro, R.V. Legeckis, S.J. Lentz, R. Limeburner, L.B. Miranda, J.H. Trowbridge 1991: Physical Oceanography of the Amazon Outflow, Oceanography, 4(10), 8-14.

View publications from before 1991

Legeckis, R. 1988: Upwelling in the Gulfs of Panama and Papagayo during March 1985, J. Geophy. Res., 93 (C12), 15485 - 15489.

Legeckis, R. and G. Reverdin 1987: Equatorial Long Waves in the Atlantic Ocean in 1983, J. Geophysical Res., 92 (C3), 2835 - 2842.

Legeckis, R. 1987: Satellite Observations of a Western Boundary Current in the Bay of Bengal, J. Geophy. Res., 92 (C12), 12974 - 12978.

Kim. K. And R. Legeckis 1986: Branching of the Tsushima current in 1981 - 1983, Progress in Oceanography, 17, 265 - 276.

Creswell, G. and R. Legeckis 1986: Eddies off Southeastern Australia, Deep Sea Res., 33(11/12), 1527 - 1562.

Legeckis, R. 1986: A satellite time series of sea surface temperatures in the Eastern Equatorial Pacific, 1982 - 1986, J. Geophy. Res., 91 (C11), 12879 - 12886.

Legeckis, R. 1986: Long Waves in the Equatorial Pacific and Atlantic Oceans during 1983, Ocean - Air Interactions, 1(1), 1 - 10.

Curtin, T.B. and R. Legeckis 1986: Physical observations in the plume region of the Amazon River during peak discharge - Surface variability. Continental Shelf Res., 6(1/2), 31 - 51.

Philander, G. D. Halpern, D. Hansen, R. Legeckis, L. Miller, C. Paul, R. Watts, R. Weisberg, M. Wimbush 1985: Long waves in the equatorial Pacific Ocean, EOS, Oceanography Report, 66(14), April 2, 1985, 154 - 156.

Kirwan Jr. A.D., W.J. Merrell Jr., J.K. Lewis, R.E. Whitaker and R. Legeckis 1984: A Model for the Analysis of Drifter Data with Application to a Warm Core Ring in the Gulf of Mexico, Journal Geophysical Res., 89(C3), 3425 - 3438.

VanForeest, D., F.A.Shillington and R. Legeckis 1984: Large Scale Stationary Frontal Features in the Benguela Current System, Continental Shelf Research, 3(4), 465 - 474.

Gagliardini, D.A., H. Karszenbaum, R. Legeckis and V. Klemas 1984: Application of LANDSAT MSS, NOAA/TIROS AVHRR and NIMBUS CZCS to the Study of the La Plata River Estuary, Remote Sensing of Environment, 15(21), 21 - 36.

Ramp. S.R., R.C. Beardsley and R. Legeckis 1983: An observation of frontal wave development on a shelf-slope warm core ring front near the shelf break south of New England, J. Physical Oceanography, 13(5), 907 - 912.

Legeckis, R. And J. Bane 1983: Comparison of aircraft and TIROS-N satellite thermal infrared measurements of the Gulf Stream, J. Geophysical Research, 88(C8), 4611 - 4616

Brooks, D.A. and R. Legeckis 1982: A ship and satellite view of hydrographic features in the Western Gulf of Mexico, J. Geophy. Res., 87(C6), 4195 - 4206.

Legeckis, R. and A. Gordon 1981: Satellite Observations of the Brazil and Falkland Currents - 1975 to 1976 and 1978, Deep Sea Research, 29(3A), 375 - 401.

Spence, T.W. and R. Legeckis 1981: Satellite and Hydrographic Observations of low frequency motions associated with a Cold Core Gulf Stream Ring, J. Geophysical Research, 86(C3), 1945 -1953.

Legeckis, R. and G. Cresswell 1981: Satellite observations of sea surface temperatures fronts off the coast of Western and Southern Australia, Deep Sea Res., 28(3A), 297 - 306.

Lee, T.N., L.P. Atkinson and R. Legeckis 1981: Observations of a Gulf Stream Frontal Eddy on the Georgia Continental Shelf, Deep Sea Research, 28(4), 347 - 378.

Weissman, D.E., T.W. Thompson and R. Legeckis 1980: Modulation of Sea Surface Radar Cross-section by Surface Stress: Wind Speed and Temperature effects across the Gulf Stream, J. Geophysical Res., 85(C9), 5032 - 5042.

Legeckis, R. 1979: Satellite Observations of the Influence of Bottom Topography on the Seaward Deflection of the Gulf Stream off Charleston, South Carolina, J. Physical Oceanography, 9(3), 483-497.

Legeckis, R. 1978: A Survey of Worl-wide sea Surface Temperature Fronts detected by Environmental Satellites, J. Geophysical Research, 83(C9), 4501 - 4522.

Harris, T.F.W., R. Legeckis and D. VanForeest 1978: Satellite Infrared Images in the Agulhas Current System, Deep Sea Research, 25, 543-548.

Molinary, R.L., S.Baig, D.W. Behringer, G. Maul and R. Legeckis 1977: Winter Intrusion of the Loop Current, Science, 198 (4316), 505 - 507.

Legeckis, R. 1977: Long Waves in the Eastern Equatorial Pacific Ocean - A View from a Geostationary Satellite, Science, 197(4309), 1179 - 1181.

E-mail to: Richard.Legeckis@noaa.gov