![](/images/icons/spacer.gif) |
Detailed Reference Information |
Jayne, S.R., Wahr, J.M. and Bryan, F.O. (2003). Observing ocean heat content using satellite gravity and altimetry. Journal of Geophysical Research 108: doi: 10.1029/2002JC001619. issn: 0148-0227. |
|
A method for combining satellite altimetry observations with satellite measurements of the Earth's time-varying gravity to give improved estimates of the ocean's heat storage is presented. Over the ocean the time-variable component of the geoid can be related to the time-varying bottom pressure. The methodology of estimating the ocean's time-varying heat storage using altimetric observations alone is modified to include observations of bottom pressure. A detailed error analysis of the methodology is undertaken. It is found that the inclusion of bottom pressure improves the ocean heat storage estimates. The improvement comes from a better estimation of the steric sea surface height by the inclusion of bottom pressure in the calculation, over using the altimeter-observed sea surface height alone. On timescales of the annual cycle and shorter the method works particularly well. However, long-timescale changes in the heat storage are poorly reproduced because of deficiencies in the methodology and the presence of contaminating signals in the bottom pressure observations. |
|
![](/images/icons/spacer.gif) |
![](/images/icons/spacer.gif) |
BACKGROUND DATA FILES |
|
![](../images/icons/sq.gif) |
Abstract![](/images/icons/spacer.gif) |
|
![](../images/buttons/download.very.flat.gif) |
|
|
|
Keywords
Oceanography, Physical, Sea level variations, Geodesy and Gravity, Ocean/Earth/atmosphere interactions, Geodesy and Gravity, Planetary geodesy and gravity (5420, 5714, 6019), Geodesy and Gravity, Space geodetic surveys, Oceanography, General, Remote sensing and electromagnetic processes |
|
Publisher
American Geophysical Union 2000 Florida Avenue N.W. Washington, D.C. 20009-1277 USA 1-202-462-6900 1-202-328-0566 service@agu.org |
|
|
![](/images/icons/spacer.gif) |