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A method for the extrapolation of vertical profiles of temperature (and/or steric heights) from measurements of sea surface elevation and sea surface temperature has been developed and is described here. The technique, called coupled pattern reconstruction (CPR), is based on a multivariate analysis of the coupled variability of vertical profiles from historical hydrographic data and on the hypothesis that only few modes are needed to explain most of the covariance of the fields. Through a linear regression between the amplitudes of the coupled modes it is possible to reconstruct the first two modes by solving a simple linear system written for the surface values, which are supposed to be known. The CPR method has been applied and tested on 9 yr of conductivity– temperature–depth (CTD) measurements collected in the northern Mediterranean Sea during the Dynamiques des Flux de Matière en …