Gravity and Geoid in the Mediterranean from a Common Adjustment of ERS-1 and TOPEX Altimeter Data

Abstract

From the separate processing and crossover analysis of repeat ERS-1 and TOPEX altimeter data in the Mediterranean basin was assessed that the TOPEX data are characterized by higher accuracy than that of ERS-1 and other previous missions data. It is also known from the coverage of both missions that the resolution of ERS-1 data is superior to that of the TOPEX data, since the distance across track in TOPEX mission is about four times the corresponding distance in ERS-1 mission. Moreover, numerical tests carried out to recover the gravity anomalies in the Mediterranean sea showed that the prediction results are affected by the data accuracy in the case of ERS-1 and by the poor coverage in the case of TOPEX. Therefore, taking into account the advantages and drawbacks of both missions we carried out a common adjustment of both altimeter data sources in order to improve the prediction accuracy of gravity anomalies and geoid heights in the Mediterranean sea.KeywordsGravity FieldGravity AnomalyTest AreaAltimeter DataGeoid HeightThese keywords were added by machine and not by the authors. This process is experimental and the keywords may be updated as the learning algorithm improves.