Estimating Sea Level Slope on the Equator
| Autor: | Pearn P. Niiler, Sean C. Kennan |
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| Rok vydání: | 2003 |
| Předmět: | |
| Zdroj: | Journal of Physical Oceanography. 33:2627-2642 |
| ISSN: | 1520-0485 0022-3670 |
| DOI: | 10.1175/1520-0485(2003)033<2627:eslsot>2.0.co;2 |
| Popis: | A new method for diagnosing the zonal gradient of sea level on the equator from in situ data is proposed and validated using satellite altimetry. A no-turbulent-stress-level boundary condition in the Pacific Equatorial Undercurrent core constrains the average flux of zonal momentum above, uniquely determining the zonal sea level gradient. The method is applied to simultaneous data from Tropical Atmosphere–Ocean Array moorings spanning 154°–165°E and ADCP moorings in the vicinity of 157.5°E from 6 October 1992 to 21 December 1993. An independent estimate of sea level slope is obtained from contemporaneous daily equatorial crossings of the first European Remote Sensing Satellite (ERS-1) and Ocean Topography Experiment (TOPEX)/Poseidon altimeters. The slope is also estimated by assuming no pressure gradient at 500-m depth. When accelerations and the pressure gradient can be estimated at the same location, 5-day averages of the no-stress-level estimate explain 59% of the variance in the altimetry dat... |
| Databáze: | OpenAIRE |
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