scholarly journals Reduction of the 59-day error signal in the Mean Sea Level derived from TOPEX/Poseidon, Jason-1 and Jason-2 data with the latest FES and GOT ocean tide models

Author(s):  
Lionel Zawadzki ◽  
Michaël Ablain ◽  
Loren Carrere ◽  
Richard D. Ray ◽  
Nikita P. Zelensky ◽  
...  

Abstract. Mean sea level (MSL) is a prominent indicator of climatic change (Ablain et al., 2015; Cazenave et al., 2014; Leuliette and Willis, 2011), and is therefore of great scientific and societal interest. Since the beginning of the altimeter mission TOPEX/Poseidon, followed by Jason-1 and Jason-2 on similar orbits, and many other missions on different orbits (ERS, EnviSat, etc.), MSL products became essential to the comprehension of Global ocean circulation. Since early in the TOPEX/Poseidon mission (Nerem, 1995) a suspicious signal, having period near 59 days and amplitude of roughly 5 mm, was apparent in the GMSL record. Compared with the 4–5 mm amplitude of the annual signal (Minster et al., 1999), the suspicious 59-day signal has understandably attracted attention. Moreover, the same signal has been subsequently detected in Jason-1 and later Jason-2 MSLs. In 2010, it was the subject of a dedicated session at the Ocean Surface Topography Science Team (OSTST) meeting in Lisbon. The conclusions were this signal is the aliasing of a higher frequency error inherited from the tide model correction: the semi-diurnal wave S2. The source of this error was mainly attributed to TOPEX measurements which are assimilated in ocean tide models. When these models are used in the computation of TOPEX/Poseidon MSL, most of the error cancels. However, this error is communicated to Jason-1 and Jason-2 MSLs. Since 2010, considerable efforts have been undertaken within the ocean tide community in order to correct ocean tide S2-waves from this error, particularly in the Goddard Ocean Tide (GOT) and Finite Element Solution (FES) latest versions. The present paper aims at assessing, quantifying and characterizing the reduction of the 58.77-day error thanks to the latest releases.

2019 ◽  
Vol 11 (2) ◽  
pp. 629-646 ◽  
Author(s):  
Surendra Adhikari ◽  
Erik R. Ivins ◽  
Thomas Frederikse ◽  
Felix W. Landerer ◽  
Lambert Caron

Abstract. The Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment (GRACE) mission data have an important, if not revolutionary, impact on how scientists quantify the water transport on the Earth's surface. The transport phenomena include land hydrology, physical oceanography, atmospheric moisture flux, and global cryospheric mass balance. The mass transport observed by the satellite system also includes solid Earth motions caused by, for example, great subduction zone earthquakes and glacial isostatic adjustment (GIA) processes. When coupled with altimetry, these space gravimetry data provide a powerful framework for studying climate-related changes on decadal timescales, such as ice mass loss and sea-level rise. As the changes in the latter are significant over the past two decades, there is a concomitant self-attraction and loading phenomenon generating ancillary changes in gravity, sea surface, and solid Earth deformation. These generate a finite signal in GRACE and ocean altimetry, and it may often be desirable to isolate and remove them for the purpose of understanding, for example, ocean circulation changes and post-seismic viscoelastic mantle flow, or GIA, occurring beneath the seafloor. Here we perform a systematic calculation of sea-level fingerprints of on-land water mass changes using monthly Release-06 GRACE Level-2 Stokes coefficients for the span April 2002 to August 2016, which result in a set of solutions for the time-varying geoid, sea-surface height, and vertical bedrock motion. We provide both spherical harmonic coefficients and spatial maps of these global field variables and uncertainties therein (https://doi.org/10.7910/DVN/8UC8IR; Adhikari et al., 2019). Solutions are provided for three official GRACE data processing centers, namely the University of Texas Austin's Center for Space Research (CSR), GeoForschungsZentrum Potsdam (GFZ), and Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), with and without rotational feedback included and in both the center-of-mass and center-of-figure reference frames. These data may be applied for either study of the fields themselves or as fundamental filter components for the analysis of ocean-circulation- and earthquake-related fields or for improving ocean tide models.


2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (16) ◽  
pp. 3310
Author(s):  
Michael G. Hart-Davis ◽  
Denise Dettmering ◽  
Roman Sulzbach ◽  
Maik Thomas ◽  
Christian Schwatke ◽  
...  

Satellite altimetry observations have provided a significant contribution to the understanding of global sea surface processes, particularly allowing for advances in the accuracy of ocean tide estimations. Currently, almost three decades of satellite altimetry are available which can be used to improve the understanding of ocean tides by allowing for the estimation of an increased number of minor tidal constituents. As ocean tide models continue to improve, especially in the coastal region, these minor tides become increasingly important. Generally, admittance theory is used by most global ocean tide models to infer several minor tides from the major tides when creating the tidal correction for satellite altimetry. In this paper, regional studies are conducted to compare the use of admittance theory to direct estimations of minor tides from the EOT20 model to identify which minor tides should be directly estimated and which should be inferred. The results of these two approaches are compared to two global tide models (TiME and FES2014) and in situ tide gauge observations. The analysis showed that of the eight tidal constituents studied, half should be inferred (2N2, ϵ2, MSF and T2), while the remaining four tides (J1, L2, μ2 and ν2) should be directly estimated to optimise the ocean tidal correction. Furthermore, for certain minor tides, the other two tide models produced better results than the EOT model, suggesting that improvements can be made to the tidal correction made by EOT when incorporating tides from the two other tide models. Following on from this, a new approach of merging tidal constituents from different tide models to produce the ocean tidal correction for satellite altimetry that benefits from the strengths of the respective models is presented. This analysis showed that the tidal correction created based on the recommendations of the tide gauge analysis provided the highest reduction of sea-level variance. Additionally, the combination of the EOT20 model with the minor tides of the TiME and FES2014 model did not significantly increase the sea-level variance. As several additional minor tidal constituents are available from the TiME model, this opens the door for further investigations into including these minor tides and optimising the tidal correction for improved studies of the sea surface from satellite altimetry and in other applications, such as gravity field modelling.


2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Surendra Adhikari ◽  
Erik R. Ivins ◽  
Thomas Frederikse ◽  
Felix W. Landerer ◽  
Lambert Caron

Abstract. The Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment (GRACE) mission data set has an important, if not revolutionary, impact on how scientists quantify the water transport on the Earth's surface. The transport phenomena include land hydrology, physical oceanography, atmospheric moisture flux, and climate related changes to the cryosphere. The mass transport observed by the satellite system also includes solid Earth motions caused by, for example, great subduction zone earthquakes and glacial isostatic adjustment (GIA) processes. When coupled with altimetry, this space gravimetry data provides a powerful framework for studying climate related changes on interdecadal time scales, such as ice mass loss and sea-level rise. As the changes in the latter are significant over the past two decades, there is a concomitant self-attraction and loading phenomenon generating ancillary changes in gravity, sea surface, and solid Earth deformation. These generate a finite signal in GRACE and ocean altimetry and it may often be desirable to isolate and remove them for the purpose of understanding, for example, ocean circulation changes and post-seismic viscoelastic mantle flow, or GIA, occurring beneath the sea floor. Here we provide a systematic calculation of sea-level fingerprints of continental (water) mass changes using monthly Release-06 GRACE Level-2 Stokes coefficients for the span April 2002 to August 2016 (Adhikari et al., 2019, https://doi.org/10.7910/DVN/8UC8IR), which result in a set of spherical harmonic coefficients for the time-varying geoid, sea surface, and vertical bedrock motion. A simple sum of the spectra yield monthly maps of the desired field and uncertainties therein. These may be applied for either study of the fields themselves or as fundamental filter components for the analysis of ocean circulation and earthquake related fields, or for improving ocean tide models.


2018 ◽  
Vol 56 (6) ◽  
pp. 3244-3255 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lionel Zawadzki ◽  
Michael Ablain ◽  
Loren Carrere ◽  
Richard D. Ray ◽  
Nikita P. Zelensky ◽  
...  

2021 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Carine G. van der Boog ◽  
Henk A. Dijkstra ◽  
Julie D. Pietrzak ◽  
Caroline A. Katsman

AbstractDouble-diffusive processes enhance diapycnal mixing of heat and salt in the open ocean. However, observationally based evidence of the effects of double-diffusive mixing on the global ocean circulation is lacking. Here we analyze the occurrence of double-diffusive thermohaline staircases in a dataset containing over 480,000 temperature and salinity profiles from Argo floats and Ice-Tethered Profilers. We show that about 14% of all profiles contains thermohaline staircases that appear clustered in specific regions, with one hitherto unknown cluster overlying the westward flowing waters of the Tasman Leakage. We estimate the combined contribution of double-diffusive fluxes in all thermohaline staircases to the global ocean’s mechanical energy budget as 7.5 GW [0.1 GW; 32.8 GW]. This is small compared to the estimated energy required to maintain the observed ocean stratification of roughly 2 TW. Nevertheless, we suggest that the regional effects, for example near Australia, could be pronounced.


2020 ◽  
Vol 33 (6) ◽  
pp. 2111-2130
Author(s):  
Woo Geun Cheon ◽  
Jong-Seong Kug

AbstractIn the framework of a sea ice–ocean general circulation model coupled to an energy balance atmospheric model, an intensity oscillation of Southern Hemisphere (SH) westerly winds affects the global ocean circulation via not only the buoyancy-driven teleconnection (BDT) mode but also the Ekman-driven teleconnection (EDT) mode. The BDT mode is activated by the SH air–sea ice–ocean interactions such as polynyas and oceanic convection. The ensuing variation in the Antarctic meridional overturning circulation (MOC) that is indicative of the Antarctic Bottom Water (AABW) formation exerts a significant influence on the abyssal circulation of the globe, particularly the Pacific. This controls the bipolar seesaw balance between deep and bottom waters at the equator. The EDT mode controlled by northward Ekman transport under the oscillating SH westerly winds generates a signal that propagates northward along the upper ocean and passes through the equator. The variation in the western boundary current (WBC) is much stronger in the North Atlantic than in the North Pacific, which appears to be associated with the relatively strong and persistent Mindanao Current (i.e., the southward flowing WBC of the North Pacific tropical gyre). The North Atlantic Deep Water (NADW) formation is controlled by salt advected northward by the North Atlantic WBC.


2006 ◽  
Vol 56 (5-6) ◽  
pp. 543-567 ◽  
Author(s):  
Barnier Bernard ◽  
Gurvan Madec ◽  
Thierry Penduff ◽  
Jean-Marc Molines ◽  
Anne-Marie Treguier ◽  
...  

2017 ◽  
Vol 63 (240) ◽  
pp. 573-580 ◽  
Author(s):  
CHRISTIAN T. WILD ◽  
OLIVER J. MARSH ◽  
WOLFGANG RACK

ABSTRACTGrounding zones are vital to ice-sheet mass balance and its coupling to the global ocean circulation. Processes here determine the mass discharge from the grounded ice sheet, to the floating ice shelves. The response of this transition zone to tidal forcing has been described by both elastic and viscoelastic models. Here we examine the validity of these models for grounding zone flexure over tidal timescales using field data from the Southern McMurdo Ice Shelf (78° 15′S, 167° 7′E). Observations of tidal movement were carried out by simultaneous tiltmeter and GPS measurements along a profile across the grounding zone. Finite-element simulations covering a 64 d period reveal that the viscoelastic model fits best the observations using a Young's modulus of 1.6 GPa and a viscosity of 1013.7 Pa s (≈ 50.1 TPa s). We conclude that the elastic model is only well-constrained for tidal displacements >35% of the spring-tidal amplitude using a Young's modulus of 1.62 ± 0.69 GPa, but that a viscoelastic model is necessary to adequately capture tidal bending at amplitudes below this threshold. In grounding zones where bending stresses are greater than at the Southern McMurdo Ice Shelf or ice viscosity is lower, the threshold would be even higher.


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