Regional enhancement of the mean dynamic topography using GOCE gravity gradients

The main objective of this study is to study how gradients can be used to extract more short wavelength information of the gravity field and to use this enhancement to improve modelling of ocean circulation, i.e. MDT in regional area. This is done by development of a method for regional gravity field recovery by using GOCE gradients in addition to the global models.

The Least Squares Collocation method requires the solution of as many linear equations as the number of data, so GOCE gradient data needs to be thinned prior to applying the method. To overcome this thinning, a Reduced Point Mass (RPM) method is developed as a part of this study. The RPM is based on the reduced point mass response.

The results presented in this study are based on all available GOCE gradient data in the GOCINA region, i.e. 18 months of observations.