Abstract
GRACE observes the temporally changing gravity field of the Earth with unprecedented accuracy. Compared to the gravity signals of the continental hydrological cycle, local ocean mass variability reflecting ocean current, density and sea level changes are a challenge for the GRACE mission. Hence, validation of GRACE with in-situ observations of ocean bottom pressure is critical to evaluate the capability of GRACE to observe oceanic mass redistribution. Here, GRACE data is compared with in-situ ocean bottom pressure at a hundred sites located in all of the world’s oceans. The advances made by recent GRACE product releases are shown, and gravity fields provided from different data centres are compared. In some regions, particularly at high-latitude sites with comparatively strong ocean bottom pressure variability and dense satellite coverage, GRACE captures oceanic variability quite well. This is a robust feature for all gravity field solutions. In contrast, some other regions show remarkably large differences between different GRACE solutions, suggesting that discrepancies in de-aliasing models play a major role in defining the skill of GRACE to realistically observe local oceanic mass variability.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
References
Böning C, Timmermann R, Macrander A, Schröter J (2008) A pattern-filtering method for the determination of ocean bottom pressure anomalies from GRACE solutions. Geophys. Res. Lett. 35, L18611, doi: 10.1029/2008GL034974.
Böning C, Timmermann R, Danilov S, Schröter J (2010) On the representation of transport variability of the Antarctic Circumpolar Current in GRACE gravity solutions and numerical ocean model simulations. In: Flechtner F, Gruber T, Güntner A, Mandea M, Rothacher M, Schöne T, Wickert J (eds.), Satellite Geodesy and Earth System Science, Springer-Verlag, Berlin, Heidelberg.
Dobslaw H, Thomas M (2010) Numerical simulations of short-term ocean mass anomalies. In: Flechtner F, Gruber T, Güntner A, Mandea M, Rothacher M, Schöne T, Wickert J (eds.), Satellite Geodesy and Earth System Science, Springer-Verlag, Berlin, Heidelberg.
Flechtner F (2007) AOD1B Product Description Document for Product Releases 01 to 04. Rev. 3.0, GRACE project documentation 327–750.
Flechtner F, Dahle Ch, Neumayer KH, König R, Förste Ch (2010a) The Release 04 CHAMP and GRACE EIGEN gravity field models. In: Flechtner F, Gruber T, Güntner A, Mandea M, Rothacher M, Schöne T, Wickert J (eds.), Satellite Geodesy and Earth System Science, Springer-Verlag, Berlin, Heidelberg.
Flechtner F, Thomas M, Dobslaw H (2010b) Improved non-tidal atmospheric and oceanic de-aliasing for GRACE and SLR satellites. In: Flechtner F, Gruber T, Güntner A, Mandea M, Rothacher M, Schöne T, Wickert J (eds.), Satellite Geodesy and Earth System Science, Springer-Verlag, Berlin, Heidelberg.
Hughes CW, Woodworth PL, Meredith MP, Stepanov V, Whitworth T, Pyne AR (2003) Coherence of Antarctic sea levels, Southern Hemisphere Annular Mode, and flow through Drake Passage. Geophys. Res. Lett. 30(9), 1464, doi: 10.1029/2003GL017240.
Kanzow T, Flechtner F, Chave A, Schmidt R, Schwintzer P, Send U (2005) Seasonal variation of ocean bottom pressure derived from Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment (GRACE): Local validation and global patterns. J. Geophys. Res. 110, C09001, doi: 10.1029/2004JC002772.
Kanzow T, Send U, Zenk W, Chave A, Rhein M (2006) Monitoring the integrated deep meridional flow in the tropical North Atlantic: Long-term performance of a geostrophic array. Deep Sea Res. I 53(3), 528–546, doi: 10.1016/j.dsr.2005.12.007.
Lemoine, J-M, Bruinsma S, Loyer S, Biancale R, Marty J-C, Perosanz F, Balmino G (2007) Temporal gravity field models inferred from GRACE data. Adv. Space Res. 39, 1620–1629, doi: 10.1016/j.asr.2007.03.062.
Lyard F, Lefevre F, Letellier T, Francis O (2006) Modelling the global ocean tides: Modern insights from FES2004. J. Ocean Dyn., doi: 10.1007/s10236-006-0086-x.
Mayer-Gürr T, Eicker A, Ilk KH (2006) Gravity field recovery from GRACE-SST data of short arcs. In: Flury J, Rummel R, Reigber C, Rothacher M, Boedecker G, Schreiber U (eds.), Observation of the Earth System from Space, ISBN 3-540-29520-8, Springer, Berlin, pp. 131–148.
Meyer U, Frommknecht B, Schmidt R, Flechtner F (2007) Global gravity fields from simulated L1 products. In: Observation of the System Earth form Space: Status Seminar, Geotechnologien Science Report No. 11, Bavarian Academy of Sciences and Humanities, Munich, November 22–23, 2007.
Morison J, Wahr J, Kwok R, Peralta-Ferriz C (2007) Recent trends in Arctic Ocean mass distribution revealed by GRACE. Geophys. Res. Lett. 34, L07602, doi: 10.1029/2006GL029016.
Orsi AH, Whitworth T, Nowlin WD (1995) On the meridional extent and fronts of the Antarctic Circumpolar Current. Deep Sea Res. Part I 42, 641–673.
Park JH, Watts DR, Donohue KA, Jayne SR (2008) A comparison of in situ bottom pressure array measurements with GRACE estimates in the Kuroshio extension. Geophys. Res. Lett. 35, L17601, doi: 10.1029/2008GL034778.
Rietbroek R, LeGrand P, Wouters B, Lemoine J-M, Ramillien G, Hughes CW (2006) Comparison of in situ bottom pressure data with GRACE gravimetry in the Crozet-Kerguelen region. Geophys. Res. Lett. 33, L21601, doi: 10.1029/2006GL027452.
Swart S, Speich S, Ansorge IJ, Goni GJ, Gladyshev S, Lutjeharms JRE (2008) Transport and variability of the Antarctic Circumpolar Current south of Africa. J. Geophys. Res. 113, C09014, doi: 10.1029/2007JC004223.
Swenson S, Wahr J (2006) Post-processing removal of correlated errors in GRACE data. Geophys. Res. Lett. 33, L08402, doi: 10.1029/2005GL025285.
University of Rhode Island (2006) Inverted Echo Sounder User’s Manual, revised report, University of Rhode Island, Narragansett.
Acknowledgments
This is publication no. GEOTECH-1271 of the GEOTECHNOLOGIEN programme of BMBF, grant 03F0436A.
We are grateful to all those who kindly provided in-situ OBP time series, namely Agnieszka Beszczynska-Möller (AWI, DAMOCLES), Chris Hughes (POL, ACCLAIM), Johannes Karstensen (IFM-GEOMAR) and Uwe Send (SIO, MOVE), Christian Meinig (NOAA, DART), Pascal LeGrand (CNES) and Roelof Rietbroek (GFZ) and Bert Wouters (TU Delft, Kerguelen), Randy Watts (URI, KESS), Stuart Cunningham (NOC) and Torsten Kanzow (NOC) and Robin McCandliss (NOC) for RAPID. This study uses data from the Rapid Climate Change programme, provided by the British Oceanographic Data Centre and supported by the Natural Environment Research Council.
We thank M. Thomas for the helpful comments which significantly improved the manuscript.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2010 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Macrander, A., Böning, C., Boebel, O., Schröter, J. (2010). Validation of GRACE Gravity Fields by In-Situ Data of Ocean Bottom Pressure. In: Flechtner, F., et al. System Earth via Geodetic-Geophysical Space Techniques. Advanced Technologies in Earth Sciences. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-10228-8_14
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-10228-8_14
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg
Print ISBN: 978-3-642-10227-1
Online ISBN: 978-3-642-10228-8
eBook Packages: Earth and Environmental ScienceEarth and Environmental Science (R0)