The importance of ocean tides in sea level research using satellite altimetry

Recent advances in satellite altimetry processing have resulted in the improvement of a wide variety of oceanographic applications. These advances have been significant in the estimation of ocean tides in the coastal region, which is a process that itself is important for studies of surface processes from satellite altimetry. Ocean tide signals form part of the signal of the sea-level retrieved from along-track altimetry and, therefore, need to be filtered out in order to provide more accurate estimation of surface processes. This has resulted in the development of several ocean tide models that serve as ocean tidal corrections for these altimetry data. Estimates from these models are relatively accurate in the open ocean region, however, these models have struggled in the coastal region based on the complexity of tides, poorly resolved bathymetry and the contamination of radar returns from satellite altimetry in the coastal region. Recent developments in the field of coastal altimetry has resulted in a significant jump in tide models in the coastal region and, therefore, has resulted in improved sea-level estimations. In this seminar, recent advances to an empirical ocean tide model (EOT20) developed at DGFI-TUM using multi-mission satellite altimetry will be discussed. Comparisons to the previous version of the model as well as other major global ocean tide models as well as in-situ observations will be shown. Furthermore, a brief look into the sea-level based research done at DGFI-TUM will be given and the implications of improved ocean tide estimates will be discussed.     «

Recent advances in satellite altimetry processing have resulted in the improvement of a wide variety of oceanographic applications. These advances have been significant in the estimation of ocean tides in the coastal region, which is a process that itself is important for studies of surface processes from satellite altimetry. Ocean tide signals form part of the signal of the sea-level retrieved from along-track altimetry and, therefore, need to be filtered out in order to provide more accurate e...     »