On the Utilization of Satellite Sea Surface Height Over the Argentinean Continental Shelf

SARACENO, M., E.E. DONOFRIO, M.E. FIORE, W.H. GRISMEYER

Nice, Palais des Congrès Acropolis, France.

Congreso; Observing and Forecasting the Ocean, OSTST Meeting; 2008

<!-- /* Style Definitions */ p.MsoNormal, li.MsoNormal, div.MsoNormal {mso-style-parent:""; margin:0in; margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:12.0pt; font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman";} @page Section1 {size:8.5in 11.0in; margin:1.0in 1.25in 1.0in 1.25in; mso-header-margin:.5in; mso-footer-margin:.5in; mso-paper-source:0;} div.Section1 {page:Section1;} --> Satellite altimetry data need of a series of adjustments and calibrations to be useful in oceanography. This has been carried out successfully in the open ocean, but only in recent years solutions are being investigated to obtain a more accurate Sea Surface Height (SSH) near the coast and on continental shelves (eg Volkov et al. 2007, Saraceno et al. 2008, Vignudelli et al. 2008). The objective of this work is to improve SSH over the continental shelf of Argentina. A comparison of the satellite altimetric products with a tide gauge time series evidence the need of improving the satellite SSH over this shelf. Tides in the region have large amplitudes, a fact that adds a degree of complexity to the problem. Comparison between a regional and global tide models with in situ measures shows that the former reproduce better the tidal amplitude and phase, specially in the presence of gulfs or close to amphidromic points (Moreira et al., 2008). As a first step to improve the along-track altimetric SSH data we replaced the global tide model correction done by AVISO with the amplitude estimated by the regional model. Preliminary results are shown. Given the scarcity of in-situ data existent in the region, the availability of more than 16 years of accurate SSH and associated geostrophic currents will quantitatively contribute to the knowledge of the region.