The GAVDOS Mean Sea Level and Altimeter Calibration Facility: Results for Jason-1

The location of the GAVDOS facility is under a crossing point of the original ground-tracks of TOPEX/Poseidon and the present ones for Jason-1, and adjacent to an ENVISAT pass, about 50 km south of Crete, Greece. Ground observations and altimetry comparisons over cycles 70 to 90, indicate that a preliminary estimate of the absolute measurement bias for the Jason-1 altimeter is 144.7 ± 15 mm. Comparison of Jason microwave radiometer data from cycles 37 and 62, with locally collected water vapor radiometer and solar spectrometer observations indicate a 1–2 mm agreement.     

The SARAL/AltiKa Altimetry Satellite Mission

The India-France SARAL/AltiKa mission is the first Ka-band altimetric mission dedi-cated to oceanography. The mission objectives are primarily the observation of the oceanic mesoscales but also include coastal oceanography, global and regional sea level monitoring, data assimilation, and operational oceanography. Secondary objectives include ice sheet and inland waters monitoring. One year after launch, the results widely confirm the nominal expectations in terms of accuracy, data quality and data availability in general.

Today's performances are compliant with specifications with an overall observed performance for the Sea Surface Height RMS of 3.4 cm to be compared to a 4 cm requirement. Some scientific examples are provided that illustrate some salient features of today's SARAL/AltiKa data with regard to standard altimetry: data availability, data accuracy at the mesoscales, data usefulness in costal area, over ice sheet, and for inland waters.     

Mean Dynamic Topography and Geostrophic Surface Currents in the Fram Strait Derived from Geodetic Data

Two mean dynamic topography (MDT) fields are determined in the Fram Strait between Svalbard and Greenland. New airborne gravity anomalies, older data, and two different mean sea surface (MSS) fields are combined using the least squares collocation (LSC) technique. The results are compared to an oceanographic MDT model and two synthetic MDT fields. The same main currents are seen in all fields. Additionally, smaller scale features are revealed in the new MDT fields. Geostrophic surface currents derived from the MDT models are compared to moorings and Lagrangian drifters. The agreement is desultory. The oceanographic data are an inadequate basis of comparison due to data gaps. Nevertheless, it is the only one available.     

Velocity Statistics Inferred from the TOPEX/Poseidon-Jason-1 Tandem Mission Data

Using a parallel-track approach to estimate geostrophic surface velocities, an estimate of the statistics of ocean geostrophic surface currents and momentum stresses is provided on a 10 km along-track resolution from the first 49 repeat cycles (16 months) of the Jason-TOPEX/Poseidon tandem altimetric sea surface height (SSH) data. Results are compared with estimates obtained in a traditional way from along-track SSH data at crossover points and with in situ, Acoustic Doppler Current Profiler (ADCP) measurements obtained on board the VOS Oleander along a nominal path connecting Bermuda with the U.S. mainland. Agreements with the Oleander data are reasonable when simultaneous (in space and time) sampling is available. However, amplitudes of parallel-track geostrophic velocity variances are about 25% lower as compared to Oleander measurements which represent geostrophic and ageostrophic flow components. Estimates of velocity variances show clear signs of an anisotropic eddy field in the vicinity of all major current systems. At the same time estimates of Reynolds stresses and eddy momentum fluxes show a convergence of eddy momentum in all those regions, suggesting a forcing of the mean flow by the eddy field there.     

利用卫星测高技术确定浙江海域大地水准面

利用多颗卫星的测高数据,经共线平均及交叉点平差,建立浙江深海海域2.5′×2.5′格网分辨率的平均海面高模型,在扣除海面地形影响后得到海域的大地水准面起伏,并与EGM2008所得计算结果进行对比;利用移去-恢复技术及SVR方法,联合验潮站GPS/水准数据与EGM2008大地水准面模型,计算浙江近岸海域大地水准面起伏;最终建立浙江海域2.5′×2.5′格网分辨率的大地水准面模型。     

卫星测高资料的电离层延迟改正交叉检验与误差分析

对单频和双频卫星测高电离层改正进行了分析和比较。以Topex卫星双频电离层改正噪声影响为例,采用沿轨高斯低通滤波后,其交叉点不符值RMS可减小5.7～7.3mm。将平滑后的双频Topex电离层改正与DORIS模型、新发展的IRI2007同化模型和根据全球连续GPS跟踪站实测数据建立的GIM模型进行了交叉比较,结果表明,根据实测数据建立的DORIS和GIM模型精度高于IRI2007模型;与上述3个模型的差值统计结果还显示了平滑后的Topex双频电离层改正存在的10～15mm的系统偏差。     

Laurentia crustal motion observed using TOPEX/POSEIDON radar altimetry over land

A new method to estimate the vertical crustal motion from satellite altimetry over land was developed. The method was tested around Hudson Bay, where the observed vertical motion is largely caused by the incomplete glacial isostatic adjustment (GIA) as a result of the Laurentide ice sheet deglaciation since the last glacial maximum (LGM). Decadal (1992–2003) TOPEX/POSEIDON radar altimetry data over land surfaces were used. The results presented here are improved compared to a previous study (Lee, H., Shum, C.K., Kuo, C.Y., Yi, Y., Braun, A., 2008. Application of TOPEX altimetry for solid Earth deformation studies. Terr. Atmos. Ocean. Sci. 19, 37–46. doi:10.3319/TAO.2008.19.1-2.37(SA).) which estimated vertical motion only over relatively flat land surfaces (standard deviation of the height variation <40 cm). In this study, we extended the concept of traditional 1-Hz (one-per-frame) radar altimeter ocean stackfiles to build 10-Hz (10-per-frame) land stackfiles over Hudson Bay land regions, and succeeded in obtaining vertical motion estimates over much rougher surfaces (standard deviation of the height variation <2 m). 90-m C-band Shuttle Radar Topography Mission (SRTM) Digital Elevation Model (DEM) is used as a reference surface to select an optimal waveform retracker, to correct surface gradient errors, and to calculate land surface anomalies. Here, we developed an alternative retracker, called the modified threshold retracker, resulting in decadal vertical motion time series over a 1500 km by 1000 km region covering northern Ontario, northeastern Manitoba, and the Great Lakes region which is at the margin of the former Laurentide ice sheet. The average of the estimated uncertainties for the vertical motion is 2.9 mm/year which is comparable to 2.1 mm/year of recent GPS solutions. The estimated vertical motion is compared with other geodetic observations from GPS, tide gauge/altimetry, GRACE, and several GIA models. The data agree best with the laterally varying 3D GIA model, RF3S20 (β = 0.4) whereas the combination of land altimetry solution with other measurements match best with the models RF3S20 (β = 0.0) or RF3S20 (β = 0.2) in terms of mean and standard deviation of the differences. It is anticipated that this innovative technique could potentially be used to provide additional constraints for GIA model improvement, and be applied to other geodynamics studies.     

Combination of TOPEX/POSEIDON data with a hydrographic inversion for determination of the oceanic general circulation and its relation to geoid accuracy

A global estimate of the absolute oceanic general circulation from a geostrophic inversion of in situ hydrographic data is tested against and then combined with an estimate obtained from TOPEX/POSEIDON altimetric data and a geoid model computed using the JGM-3 gravity-field solution. Within the quantitative uncertainties of both the hydrographic inversion and the geoid estimate, the two estimates derived by very different methods are consistent. When the in situ inversion is combined with the altimetry/geoid scheme using a recursive inverse procedure, a new solution, fully consistent with both hydrography and altimetry, is found. There is, however, little reduction in the uncertainties of the calculated ocean circulation and its mass and heat fluxes because the best available geoid estimate remains noisy relative to the purely oceano-graphic inferences. The conclusion drawn from this is that the comparatively large errors present in the existing geoid models now limit the ability of satellite altimeter data to improve directly the general ocean circulation models derived from in situ measurements. Because improvements in the geoid could be realized through a dedicated spaceborne gravity recovery mission, the impact of hypothetical much better, future geoid estimates on the circulation uncertainty is also quantified, showing significant hypothetical reductions in the uncertainties of oceanic transport calculations, Full ocean general circulation models could better exploit both existing oceanographic data and future gravity-mission data, but their present use is severely limited by the inability to quantify their error budgets.     

Program News Bright Prospects for a Significant Improvement of the Earth's Gravity Field Knowledge

Concern over the impact of change in sea level is of topical interest internationally, but for the small island states of the Caribbean, a significant increase would prove to be catastrophic. The potential problem is being addressed as part of the much larger issue of climate change, and just this year a regional Climate Change Centre was established in Belize. Means of adapting to accommodate change will be considered under the Mainstream Adaptation to Climate Change (MACC) project, but initially the threat needs to be quantified. While meteorological offices have been accumulating weather data in some parts of the region for many years, sea level data is more scarce. This work puts least squares methods to test by applying them to spectral analysis of intermittent data sets acquired over periods of 6 and 9 years at two locations in Trinidad. The resulting sea level models that include 13 periodic components, datum bias, trend and atmospheric pressure are validated using fundamental historical information and observations that form the subject of discussion among local professional surveyors. Results show that while sea level at a location in North Trinidad is rising at the rate of about 1 mm a year, the change at a Southern site is about four times this amount. Horizontal movement has been measured across a tectonic fault that parts the island, and it is now apparent that there may be some vertical motion on this or some other fault lines in the region.     

LE TRITIUM DANS LES PRÉCIPITATIONS DE L'ASIE DU SUD-EST ET LE PHÉNOMÉNE DE LA MOUSSON EN 1966 ET EN 1967

Abstract

The problem of non-steady flow of water in a soil-plant system can be described by adding a sink term to the continuity equation for soil water flow. In this paper the sink term is defined in two different ways. Firstly it is considered to be dependent on the hydraulic conductivity of the soil, on the difference in pressure head between the soil and the root-soil interface and some root effectiveness function. Secondly the sink is taken to be a prescribed function of the soil water content. The partial differential equation applying to the first problem is solved by both a finite difference (FD 1) and a finite element (FE 1) technique, that applying to the second problem by a finite difference approach (FD 2). The purpose of this paper is to verify the numerical models against field measurements, to compare the results obtained by the three numerical methods and to show how the finite element method can be applied to complex but realistic two-dimensional flow situations. Two examples are given. The first concerns one-dimensional flow and it compares numerical results with those obtained experimentally in the field from water balance studies on red cabbage (Brassica oleracea L. ‘Rode Herfst’) grown on a clay soil in the presence of a water table. The second example describes two-dimensional flow in a complex field situation in the Netherlands where flow takes place under cropped field conditions through five anisotropic layers. Water is supplied to the system by infiltration from two unlined ditches and is withdrawn from the system by evapotranspiration and by leakage to an underlying pumped aquifer.