W.: Sea surface height determination in the Arctic Ocean from ERS altimetry

• Main Authors: Neil R. Peacock, Seymour W. Laxon
• Other Authors: The Pennsylvania State University CiteSeerX Archives
• Format: Text
• Language: English
• Subjects: Arctic; Arctic Ocean; Canada; Greenland; canada basin; Iceland; Sea ice
• Online Access: http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/summary?doi=10.1.1.574.5887; http://www.cpom.org/research/swl-jgr2.pdf

[1] Accurate sea surface height measurements have been extracted from ERS altimeter data in sea ice–covered regions for the first time. The data have been used to construct a mean sea surface of the Arctic Ocean between the latitudes of 60N and 81.5N based on 4 years of ERS-2 data. An RMS value for the crossover differences of mean sea surface profiles of 4.2 cm was observed in the ice-covered Canada Basin, compared with 3.8 cm in the ice-free Greenland-Iceland-Norwegian Seas. Comparisons are made with an existing global mean sea surface (OSUMSS95), highlighting significant differences between the two surfaces in permanently ice-covered seas. In addition, we present the first altimeter-derived sea surface height variability map of the Arctic Ocean. Comparisons with a high-resolution coupled ocean–sea ice general circulation model reveal a good qualitative agreement in the spatial distribution of variability. Quantitatively, we found that the observed variability was on average a factor of 3–4 greater than model