The variability of sea surface height (SSH) is controlled by processes that span a broad range of spatial and temporal scales. At mesoscales and large submesoscales (300--15 km), the SSH spectrum is expected to be consistent with quasi-geostrophic (QG) turbulence theory and to be characterized by a quasi-linear spectral slope, with variance decaying toward higher wavenumbers. In contrast, at scales ranging from hundreds of meters to a few meters, SSH variability is dominated by surface...