Improved description of the ocean mesoscale variability by combining four satellite altimeters - art. no. L02611
| Type | Article | ||||||||
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| Date | 2006 | ||||||||
| Language | English | ||||||||
| Author(s) | Pascual Ananda1, Faugere Yannice2, Larnicol Gilles2, Le Traon Pierre-Yves3 | ||||||||
| Affiliation(s) | 1 : Univ Las Baleares, Inst Mediterrani Estudis Avancats, CSIC, E-07122 Mallorca, Spain. 2 : CLS, Space Oceanog Div, F-31520 Ramonville St Agne, France. 3 : IFREMER, F-29280 Plouzane, France. |
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| Source | Geophysical Research Letters (0094-8276) (AGU), 2006 , Vol. 33 , N. 2 , P. NIL_13-NIL_16 | ||||||||
| DOI | 10.1029/2005GL024633 | ||||||||
| WOS© Times Cited | 273 | ||||||||
| Keyword(s) | Satellite altimeters, Mesoscale variability, Global ocean | ||||||||
| Abstract | Data from four satellite altimeters are combined with the aim of improving the representation of the mesoscale variability in the Global Ocean. All missions [Jason-1, ERS-2/ENVISAT, Topex/Poseidon interleaved with Jason-1 and Geosat Follow-On] are cross-calibrated previously to produce weekly gridded maps. In areas of intense variability, the rms differences between a classical configuration of two altimeters and the scenario merging four missions can reach 10 cm and 400 cm(2)/s(2) in SLA and EKE, respectively, which represents an important percentage of the signal variance. A comparison with surface drifters shows that the four altimeter scenario improves the recovery of mesoscale structures that were not properly sampled with Jason(-1) + ERS-2/ENVISAT. Finally, the consistency between altimetric and tide gauge data is improved by about 25% when coastal sea level is estimated with 4 satellites compared to the results obtained with 2 altimeters. | ||||||||
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