MEAN DYNAMIC TOPOGRAPHY DETERMINATION OVER THE WESTERN MEDITERRANEAN SEA USING ALTIMETRY MEASUREMENTS AND GOCE GRAVITY MODEL

Abstract

The ocean surface must be surveyed in order to determine the dynamic topography, tides, time-variations etc… The Mean Ocean Dynamic Topography (MDT), which is the distance between the Geoid and the Mean Sea Surface Height (MSS) and which reflects the ocean dynamics, is a primary oceanography unknown. The processing of 21 years altimetry satellite measurements by the correction of the environmental, geophysical and orbital effects, permit us to determinate the mean sea surface height with 1 cm of precision, while using a Geoid model based on 03 years of GOCE satellite measurements, we can calculate the Mean Dynamic Topography over the Western Mediterranean sea. The variation of the obtained surface is between -0.75 and 0.75m. The obtained surface is compared with RioMed which the Mean dynamic topography over the Mediterranean Sea provided by AVISO Altimetry (CNES).