Determination of Accurate Dynamic Topography for the Baltic Sea Using Satellite Altimetry and a Marine Geoid Model

Abstract

Accurate determination of dynamic topography (DT) is expected to quantify a realistic sea surface with respect to its vertical datum and in identifying sub-mesoscale features of ocean dynamics. This study explores a method that derives DT by using satellite altimetry (SA) in conjunction with a high-resolution marine geoid model. To assess the method, DT was computed using along-track SA from Sentinel- 3A (S3A), Sentinel-3B (S3B), and Jason-3 (JA3), then compared with DT derived from a tide-gauge-corrected hydrodynamic model (HDM) for the period 2017–2019 over the Baltic Sea. Comparison of SA-derived DT and corrected HDM showed average discrepancies in the range of ±20 cm, with root mean square errors of 9 cm (for S3B) and 6 cm (for S3A and JA6) and a standard deviation between 2 and 16 cm. Inter-comparisons between data sources and multi-mission SA over the Baltic Sea also potentially identified certain persistent and semi-persistent problematic areas that are either associated with deficiencies in the geoid, tide gauge, HDM, and SA or a combination of all of these. In addition, it was observed that SA data have the potential to show a more realistic (detailed) variation of DT compared to HDM, which tended to generate only a smooth (low-pass) surface and underestimate DT.