  The geographical variability, frequency content, and vertical structure of
near-surface oceanic kinetic energy (KE) are important for air-sea interaction,
marine ecosystems, operational oceanography, pollutant tracking, and
interpreting remotely sensed velocity measurements. Here, KE in high-resolution
global simulations (HYbrid Coordinate Ocean Model; HYCOM, and Massachusetts
Institute of Technology general circulation model; MITgcm), at the sea surface
(0 m) and 15 m, are respectively compared with KE from undrogued and drogued
surface drifters. Global maps and zonal averages are computed for low-frequency
($<$ 0.5 cpd), near-inertial, diurnal, and semi-diurnal bands. Both models
exhibit low-frequency equatorial KE that is low relative to drifter values.
HYCOM near-inertial KE is higher than in MITgcm, and closer to drifter values,
probably due to more frequently updated atmospheric forcing. HYCOM semi-diurnal
KE is lower than in MITgcm, and closer to drifter values, likely due to
inclusion of a parameterized topographic internal wave drag. A concurrent tidal
harmonic analysis in the diurnal band demonstrates that much of the diurnal
flow is non-tidal. We compute a simple proxy of near-surface vertical
structure, the ratio of 0 m KE to 0 m KE plus 15 m KE in model outputs, and
undrogued KE to undrogued KE plus drogued KE in drifter observations. Over most
latitudes and frequency bands, model ratios track the drifter ratios to within
error bars. Values of this ratio demonstrate significant vertical structure in
all frequency bands except the semidiurnal band. Latitudinal dependence in the
ratio is greatest in diurnal and low-frequency bands.
