On the hydrodynamic correction of SEASAT altimeter data (Hudson bay area of Canada)

Abstract

The SEASAT Geophysical Data Record (GDR) file includes a number of corrections for instruments, atmospheric effects, coastal effects, and geophysical effects. However, the transient sea surface variation due to the ocean circulation and wind surge is not implemented. In this research an interactive numerical scheme, based on the vertically integrated hydrodynamic equations, is developed to make this correction. Since the exactness of the transient sea surface depends upon the exactness of the input meteorological data, a method is also developed for extracting surface wind speed and direction from weather charts for the interactive hydrodynamic numerical algorithm.

The application of the algorithm over the Hudson Bay of Canada demonstrates that this technique can easily be applied to any regional altimeter data over a water‐covered area. The resulting transient sea surface profiles and the comparisons between wind fields derived from the weather charts and altimeter inferred wind fields over Hudson Bay for revolution numbers 559, 564, and 574 are presented.