TOPEX/POSEIDON: The 2-cm solution

摘要: The unprecedented accuracy of TOPEX/POSEIDON (T/P) altimeter data warrants a new evaluation the methods typically used to form time series sea level change. Whereas explicit removal orbit error has always been required as first step in processing, T/P analysis presented here is based simply on unadjusted, monthly averages. This approach advantage retaining large-scale ocean signal, which would be distorted by adjustment. Using 16 months data, we have evaluated means spatial scales ranging from mesoscale global. In tropical Pacific, comparisons with 17 island tide gauge records and dynamic height derived 36 thermistor moorings show that an approximately 2 cm when averaged over few hundred kilometers. On basin northern hemisphere, similar agreement found between climatology Levitus (1982). These observations are thus providing reliable view global changes seasonal-to-interannual timescales.