Simulating high-frequency atmosphere-ocean mass variability for dealiasing of satellite gravity observations: AOD1B RL05

Abstract

An improved version of the OMCT ocean model with 1 spatial resolution provides bottom pressure anomalies for the new release 05 of the GRACE Atmosphere and Ocean Dealiasing Level 1B (AOD1B) product. For high-frequency signals with periods below 30 days, this model explains up to 10 cm 2 of the residual sea level variance seen by ENVISAT in large parts of the Southern Ocean, corresponding to about 40% of the observed sea level residuals in many open ocean regions away from the tropics. Comparable amounts of variance are also explained by AOD1B RL05 for colocated in situ ocean bottom pressure recorders. Although secular trends contained in AOD1B RL05 cause GRACE KBRR residuals to increase in shallow water regions, we find a reduction of those residuals over all open ocean areas, indicating that AOD1B RL05 is much better suited to remove nontidal high-frequency mass variability from satellite gravity observations than previous versions of AOD1B.