• Login
    About WHOAS
    View Item 
    •   WHOAS Home
    • Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution
    • Academic Programs
    • WHOI Theses
    • View Item
    •   WHOAS Home
    • Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution
    • Academic Programs
    • WHOI Theses
    • View Item
    JavaScript is disabled for your browser. Some features of this site may not work without it.

    Browse

    All of WHOASCommunities & CollectionsBy Issue DateAuthorsTitlesKeywordsThis CollectionBy Issue DateAuthorsTitlesKeywords

    My Account

    LoginRegister

    Statistics

    View Usage Statistics

    The oceanographic and geoidal components of sea surface topography

    Thumbnail
    View/Open
    Zlotnicki_Thesis (5.763Mb)
    Date
    1983-02
    Author
    Zlotnicki, Victor  Concept link
    Metadata
    Show full item record
    Citable URI
    https://hdl.handle.net/1912/1717
    Location
    North Atlantic
    DOI
    10.1575/1912/1717
    Keyword
     Submarine topography; Ocean bottom 
    Abstract
    Altimetric, gravimetric and oceanographic data over the North Atlantic are combined -using techniques of optimum estimation- to infer the surface expression of the time averaged circulation (ζ) and to estimate the marine geoid (γ), both in the wavelength band 100 km-2000 km. Optimum inverse methods in geophysics are reviewed. They are then used to analyze the estimation of the geoid from gravity data, emphasizing the wavenumber spectrum of resolution functions. It is found that accurate bandpassed versions of the geoid can be recovered from restricted data sets. The accuracy and distribution of publicly available gravity data are shown to define an estimate γ whose expected errors, σγ, range between 30 and 260 cm, assuming the Wagner and Colombo (1978) spectrum describes the average geoid behaviour. The σγ underestimate the actual differences between 'y and an altimetric surface (s) derived from Seasat, but the spatial variation of σγ follows closely the differences s-γ. The discrepancy is attributable to a partial failure of the spectral model at short wavelengths. The differences s-γ are dominated by geoid error that masks much of the signal ζ. The main North Atlantic gyre emerges clearly only after the σγ and the simplest model for ζ -as a spatially uncorrelated process with (30 cm)2 variance- are taken into account. To obtain a corrected geoid, a hydrographic estimate of ζ is combined with sand γ, and their expected errors.
    Description
    Submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution February, 1983
    Collections
    • Physical Oceanography (PO)
    • WHOI Theses
    Suggested Citation
    Thesis: Zlotnicki, Victor, "The oceanographic and geoidal components of sea surface topography", 1983-02, DOI:10.1575/1912/1717, https://hdl.handle.net/1912/1717
     

    Related items

    Showing items related by title, author, creator and subject.

    • Thumbnail

      When an eddy encounters shelf-slope topography 

      Cherian, Deepak A. (Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, 2016-09)
      Eddies in the ocean move westwards. Those shed by western boundary currents must then interact with continental shelf-slope topography at the western boundary. The presence of other eddies and mean lows complicates this ...
    • Thumbnail

      Stability of a coastal upwelling front over topography 

      Barth, John A. (Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, 1987-10)
      A two-layer shallow water equation model is used to investigate the linear stability of a coastal upwelling front. The model features a surface front near a coastal boundary and bottom topography which is an arbitrary ...
    • Thumbnail

      Linear and nonlinear stratified spindown over sloping topography 

      Benthuysen, Jessica A. (Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, 2010-06)
      In a stratified rotating fluid, frictionally driven circulations couple with the buoyancy field over sloping topography. Analytical and numerical methods are used to quantify the impact of this coupling on the vertical ...
    All Items in WHOAS are protected by original copyright, with all rights reserved, unless otherwise indicated. WHOAS also supports the use of the Creative Commons licenses for original content.
    A service of the MBLWHOI Library | About WHOAS
    Contact Us | Send Feedback | Privacy Policy
    Core Trust Logo