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Geosat observations of sea level response to barometric pressure forcing
Author(s) -
Hoar Timothy J.,
Wilson Clark R.
Publication year - 1994
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 - 10.1029/94gl02339
Subject(s) - barometer , altimeter , sea level , forcing (mathematics) , atmospheric pressure , climatology , northern hemisphere , latitude , environmental science , geology , atmospheric sciences , ground track , geodesy , oceanography , meteorology , geography , satellite , physics , geostationary orbit , astronomy
Altimeter and sea level pressure data from the Geosat mission are analyzed for evidence of inverted barometer response of sea level to atmospheric pressure forcing. Estimates of the inverted barometer coefficient are given for a variety of geographic regions and time scales using various orbit error removal strategies. There is some sensitivity to the orbit error removal method, but the estimated coefficients show a clear latitudinal dependence and are generally between −0.5 cm/mbar and −0.9 cm/mbar. The southern oceans respond slightly more like an inverted barometer than the northern oceans for similar latitudes. The regression exhibits significant geographic variability, particularly near major circulation features and in the northern hemisphere. The results suggest that the inverted barometer approximation is reasonable over much of the oceans, but that some sea level variability may be correlated with barometric pressure by means other than the inverted barometer effect.