Errors of Mean Dynamic Topography and Geostrophic Current Estimates in China’s Marginal Seas from GOCE and Satellite Altimetry

Abstract

AbstractThe Gravity Field and Steady-State Ocean Circulation Explorer (GOCE) and satellite altimetry can provide very detailed and accurate estimates of the mean dynamic topography (MDT) and geostrophic currents in China’s marginal seas, such as, the newest high-resolution GOCE gravity field model GO-CONS-GCF-2-TIM-R4 and the new Centre National d’Etudes Spatiales mean sea surface model MSS_CNES_CLS_11 from satellite altimetry. However, errors and uncertainties of MDT and geostrophic current estimates from satellite observations are not generally quantified. In this paper, errors and uncertainties of MDT and geostrophic current estimates from satellite gravimetry and altimetry are investigated and evaluated in China’s marginal seas. The cumulative error in MDT from GOCE is reduced from 22.75 to 9.89 cm when compared to the Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment (GRACE) gravity field model ITG-Grace2010 results in the region. The errors of the geostrophic currents from GRACE are smaller than from GOCE with the truncation degrees 90 and 120. However, when the truncation degree is higher than 150, the GRACE mean errors increase rapidly and become significantly larger than the GOCE results. The geostrophic velocities based on GOCE-TIM4 have higher accuracy and spatial resolution, and the mean error is about 12.6 cm s−1, which is more consistent with the in situ drifter’s results than using GRACE data.