Making the connection between Geosat and TOPEX/Poseidon

We can presently construct two independent time series of sea level, each at a precision of a few centimeters, from Geosat (1985–1988) and TOPEX/Poseidon (1992–1995) collinear altimetry. Both are based on precise satellite orbits computed using a common geopotential model, JGM-2 (Nerem et al. 1994). We have attempted to connect these series using Geosat-T/P crossover differences in order to assess long-term ocean changes between these missions. Unfortunately, the observed result are large-scale sea level differences which appear to be due to a combination of geodetic and geopotential error sources. The most significant geodetic component seems to be a coordinate system bias for Geosat sea level (relative to T/P) of −7 to −9 cm in the y-axis (towards the Eastern Pacific). The Geosat-T/P sea height differences at crossovers (with JGM-2 orbits) probably also contain stationary geopotential-orbit error of about the same magnitude which also distort any oceanographic interpretation of the observed changes. We also found JGM-3 Geosat orbits have not resolved the datum errors evident from the JGM-2 Geosat -T/P results. We conclude that the direct altimetric approach to accurate determination of sea level change using Geosat and T/P data still depends on further improvement in the Geosat orbits, including definition of the geocenter. Received: 11 March 1996; Accepted: 19 September 1996