Premium
Ocean bottom pressure observation off Sanriku and comparison with ocean tide models, altimetry, and barotropic signals from ocean models
Author(s) -
Matsumoto K.,
Sato T.,
Fujimoto H.,
Tamura Y.,
Nishino M.,
Hino R.,
Higashi T.,
Kanazawa T.
Publication year - 2006
Publication title -
geophysical research letters
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.007
H-Index - 273
eISSN - 1944-8007
pISSN - 0094-8276
DOI - 10.1029/2006gl026706
Subject(s) - barotropic fluid , baroclinity , altimeter , ocean tide , geology , internal tide , tidal model , sea level , climatology , oceanography , geodesy , internal wave
We discuss tidal and non‐tidal signals which are obtained from ocean bottom pressure (OBP) measurements at two sites off Sanriku, Japan. Comparison between the observed tidal component and five ocean tide models shows that recent models have accuracy better than 1.3 cm in terms of root sum square of vector differences for eight principal constituents. The empirical estimates of non‐tidal signal from TOPEX/POSEIDON (T/P) and JASON‐1 deviate from barotropic signals observed by OBP recorders, which can be attributed to baroclinic component in the altimeter data. We also compared the non‐tidal barotropic signal derived from the observation with those from ECCO model (wind‐driven) and Kyushu University model (pressure‐driven). The comparison indicates that the pressure‐driven model increases explained variance and it is suggested to combine the wind‐driven model and the pressure‐driven model in order to describe non‐tidal ocean mass variability in particular at period shorter than 30 days.