Correlation between sea surface topography and bathymetry in shallow shelf waters in the Western Mediterranean

In this paper, gravimetric and altimetric data are used to assess an estimation of the sea surface topography in the Western Mediterranean Sea. This is a complex area from different points of view, due to the presence of several islands, coastal lines, shallow waters and a peculiar hydrologic equili...

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Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores: Rodríguez Velasco, Gema, Sevilla de Lerma, Miguel Jesús
Tipo de recurso: artículo
Fecha de publicación:2002
País:España
Institución:Universidad Complutense de Madrid (UCM)
Repositorio:Docta Complutense
Idioma:inglés
OAI Identifier:oai:docta.ucm.es:20.500.14352/57916
Acceso en línea:https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.14352/57916
Access Level:acceso abierto
Palabra clave:531.51
Circulation
altimetry
ERS-1
geoid
LSC
satellite geodesy
sea surface topography
Geofísica
2507 Geofísica
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oai_identifier_str oai:docta.ucm.es:20.500.14352/57916
network_acronym_str ES
network_name_str España
spelling Correlation between sea surface topography and bathymetry in shallow shelf waters in the Western Mediterranean Rodríguez Velasco, Gema Sevilla de Lerma, Miguel Jesús 531.51 Circulation altimetry ERS-1 geoid LSC satellite geodesy sea surface topography Geofísica 2507 Geofísica In this paper, gravimetric and altimetric data are used to assess an estimation of the sea surface topography in the Western Mediterranean Sea. This is a complex area from different points of view, due to the presence of several islands, coastal lines, shallow waters and a peculiar hydrologic equilibrium due to its proximity to the Atlantic water exchange area. First, a gravimetric geoid was computed using the least-squares collocation (LSC) procedure with the classical remove-restore technique. We also present a local mean sea surface generated from repeat ERS-1 altimeter data fitted to TOPEX. We chose this satellite because it offers a better spatial resolution than the TOPEX data. The time span used in the computations is one year. This is a useful interval for averaging out the regular seasonal variations, which are very large in this area. We present the comparisons between the gravimetric geoidal heights and the adjusted sea surface. This is a way to obtain a rough estimation of the sea surface topography (SST) since we also include the errors in the two surfaces and other oceanic signals. The differences obtained are physically reasonable with a mean of 17 cm and standard deviation (s.d.) of 39 cm. A significant similarity is observed between the features reproduced by these differences and the bathymetry in the area, suggesting some sort of correlation between both magnitudes for the studied region. If we accept such correlation, the SST may be described as a function of depth. This procedure lets us filter out the short wavelength part of the geoid from the first SST estimation. Blackwell https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.14352/57916
title Correlation between sea surface topography and bathymetry in shallow shelf waters in the Western Mediterranean
spellingShingle Correlation between sea surface topography and bathymetry in shallow shelf waters in the Western Mediterranean
Rodríguez Velasco, Gema
531.51
Circulation
altimetry
ERS-1
geoid
LSC
satellite geodesy
sea surface topography
Geofísica
2507 Geofísica
title_short Correlation between sea surface topography and bathymetry in shallow shelf waters in the Western Mediterranean
title_full Correlation between sea surface topography and bathymetry in shallow shelf waters in the Western Mediterranean
title_fullStr Correlation between sea surface topography and bathymetry in shallow shelf waters in the Western Mediterranean
title_full_unstemmed Correlation between sea surface topography and bathymetry in shallow shelf waters in the Western Mediterranean
title_sort Correlation between sea surface topography and bathymetry in shallow shelf waters in the Western Mediterranean
author Rodríguez Velasco, Gema
author_facet Rodríguez Velasco, Gema
Sevilla de Lerma, Miguel Jesús
author_role author
author2 Sevilla de Lerma, Miguel Jesús
author2_role author
topic 531.51
Circulation
altimetry
ERS-1
geoid
LSC
satellite geodesy
sea surface topography
Geofísica
2507 Geofísica
topic_facet 531.51
Circulation
altimetry
ERS-1
geoid
LSC
satellite geodesy
sea surface topography
Geofísica
2507 Geofísica
description In this paper, gravimetric and altimetric data are used to assess an estimation of the sea surface topography in the Western Mediterranean Sea. This is a complex area from different points of view, due to the presence of several islands, coastal lines, shallow waters and a peculiar hydrologic equilibrium due to its proximity to the Atlantic water exchange area. First, a gravimetric geoid was computed using the least-squares collocation (LSC) procedure with the classical remove-restore technique. We also present a local mean sea surface generated from repeat ERS-1 altimeter data fitted to TOPEX. We chose this satellite because it offers a better spatial resolution than the TOPEX data. The time span used in the computations is one year. This is a useful interval for averaging out the regular seasonal variations, which are very large in this area. We present the comparisons between the gravimetric geoidal heights and the adjusted sea surface. This is a way to obtain a rough estimation of the sea surface topography (SST) since we also include the errors in the two surfaces and other oceanic signals. The differences obtained are physically reasonable with a mean of 17 cm and standard deviation (s.d.) of 39 cm. A significant similarity is observed between the features reproduced by these differences and the bathymetry in the area, suggesting some sort of correlation between both magnitudes for the studied region. If we accept such correlation, the SST may be described as a function of depth. This procedure lets us filter out the short wavelength part of the geoid from the first SST estimation.
publishDate 2002
format article
url https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.14352/57916
language eng
eu_rights_str_mv openAccess
publisher Blackwell
institution Universidad Complutense de Madrid (UCM)
collection Docta Complutense
reponame_str Docta Complutense
instname_str Universidad Complutense de Madrid (UCM)
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publishDateSort 2002
author_browse Rodríguez Velasco, Gema
Sevilla de Lerma, Miguel Jesús
publisherStr Blackwell
score 6,8972664

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