Abstract
The past decade has seen the most intensive observations of the global ocean surface topography from satellite altimeters. The Joint U.S./France TOPEX/POSEJDON (T/P) Mission has become the longest radar mission ever flown in space, providing the most accurate measurements for the study of ocean dynamics since October, 1992. The European Space Agency’s ERS-1 and -2 Mission also provided altimetric observations from 1991–2000. The combined data from T/P and ERS have higher spatial resolution and greater coverage than the individual missions. Major advances in large-scale ocean dynamics from these observations are reviewed in the paper, including the ocean general circulation and its variability, the evolution of the El Nino Southern Oscillation cycles as well as the emerging decadal variability, the response of the ocean to wind forcing, assimilation of altimeter data by ocean general circulation models and the estimation of deep ocean circulation, global sea level rise, and tidal models and mixing.
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Fu, LL., Menard, Y. (2003). Advances in Large-Scale Ocean Dynamics From a Decade of Satellite Altimetric Measurement of Ocean Surface Topography. In: Hwang, C., Shum, C.K., Li, J. (eds) Satellite Altimetry for Geodesy, Geophysics and Oceanography. International Association of Geodesy Symposia, vol 126. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-18861-9_3
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-18861-9_3
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