Modeling gravimetric signatures of third-degree ocean tides and their detection in superconducting gravimeter records

We employ the barotropic, data-unconstrained ocean tide model TiME to derive an atlas for degree-3 tidal constituentsincluding monthly to terdiurnal tidal species. The model is optimized with respect to the tide gauge data set TICON-td that isextended to include the respective tidal constituents of diurnal and higher frequencies. The tide gauge validation shows a rootmean-square (RMS) deviation of 0.9–1.3mm for the individual species. We further model the load tide-induced gravimetric signals by two means (1) a global load Love number approach and (2) evaluating Greens-integrals at 16 selected locations of superconducting gravimeters. The RMS deviation between the amplitudes derived using both methods is below 0.5 nGal (1 nGal = 0.01 nm/s2 ) when excluding near-coastal gravimeters. Utilizing ETERNA-x, a recently upgraded and reworked tidal analysis software, we additionally derive degree-3 gravimetric tidal constituents for these stations, based on a hypothesis-free wave grouping approach.We demonstrate that this analysis is feasible, yielding amplitude predictions of only a few 10 nGal, and that it agrees with the modeled constituents on a level of 63–80% of the mean signal amplitude. Larger deviations are only found for lowest amplitude signals, near-coastal stations, or shorter and noisier data sets

Removal of 2-butoxyethanol gaseous emissions by biotrickling filtration packed with polyurethane foam

The removal of 2-butoxyethanol from gaseous emissions was studied using two biotrickling filters (BTF1 and BTF2) packed with polyurethane foam. Two different inoculum sources were used: a pure culture of Pseudomonas sp. BOE200 (BTF1) and activated sludge from a municipal wastewater treatment plant (BTF2). The bioreactors were operated at inlet loads (ILs) of 130 and 195 g m−3 hour−1 and at an empty bed residence time (EBRT) of 12.5 s. Under an IL of ∼130 g m−3 hour−1, BTF1 presented higher elimination capacities (ECs) than BTF2, with average values of 106 ± 7 and 68 ± 8 g m−3 hour−1, respectively. However, differences in ECs between BTFs were decreased by reducing the irrigation intervals from 1 min every 12 min to 1 min every 2 hours in BTF2. Average values of EC were 111 ± 25 and 90 ± 7 g m−3 hour−1 for BTF1 and BTF2, respectively, when working at an IL of ∼195 g m−3 hour−1. Microbial analysis revealed a significant shift in the microbial community of BTF1 inoculated with Pseudomonas sp. BOE200. At the end of the experiment, the species Microbacterium sp., Chryseobacterium sp., Acinetobacter sp., Pseudomonas sp. and Mycobacterium sp. were detected. In BTF2 inoculated with activated sludge, the denaturing gradient gel electrophoresis (DGGE) technique showed a diverse microbial community including species that was able to use 2-butoxyethanol as its carbon source, such as Pseudomonas aeruginosa and Pseudomonas putida as representative species. Although BTF1 inoculated with Pseudomonas sp. BOE200 and higher gas velocity (probably greater gas/liquid mass transfer rate) showed a slight improvement in performance, the use of activated sludge as inoculum seems to be a more feasible option for the industrial application of this technology

Steric and mass-induced sea level variations in the Mediterranean Sea revisited

The total sea level variation (SLV) is the combination of steric and mass␣induced SLV, whose exact shares are key to understanding the oceanic response to climate system changes. Total SLV can be observed by radar altimetry satellites such as TOPEX/POSEIDON and Jason 1/2. The steric SLV can be computed through temperature and salinity profiles from in situ measurements or from ocean general circulation models (OGCM), which can assimilate the said observations. The mass-induced SLV can be estimated from its time-variable gravity (TVG) signals. We revisit this problem in the Mediterranean Sea estimating the observed, steric, and mass-induced SLV, for the latter we analyze the latest TVG data set from the GRACE (Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment) satellite mission launched in 2002, which is 3.5 times longer than in previous studies, with the application of a two-stage anisotropic filter to reduce the noise in high-degree and -order spherical harmonic coefficients. We confirm that the intra-annual total SLV are only produced by water mass changes, a fact explained in the literature as a result of the wind field around the Gibraltar Strait. The steric SLV estimated from the residual of “altimetry minus GRACE” agrees in phase with that estimated from OGCMs and in situ measurements, although showing a higher amplitude. The net water fluxes through both the straits of Gibraltar and Sicily have also been estimated accordingly.This work was elaborated during the stay of the first author at the National Central University of Taiwan, thanks to a grant from the Generalitat Valenciana, Spain. Jean-Paul Boy is currently visiting NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, with a Marie Curie International Outgoing Fellowship (PIOF-GA-2008-221753). This work was partly funded by two Spanish projects from MICIN, ESP2006-11357, and AYA2009-07981 and one from Generalitat Valenciana (ACOMP2009/031)

Altimetry for the future: Building on 25 years of progress

In 2018 we celebrated 25 years of development of radar altimetry, and the progress achieved by this methodology in the fields of global and coastal oceanography, hydrology, geodesy and cryospheric sciences. Many symbolic major events have celebrated these developments, e.g., in Venice, Italy, the 15th (2006) and 20th (2012) years of progress and more recently, in 2018, in Ponta Delgada, Portugal, 25 Years of Progress in Radar Altimetry. On this latter occasion it was decided to collect contributions of scientists, engineers and managers involved in the worldwide altimetry community to depict the state of altimetry and propose recommendations for the altimetry of the future. This paper summarizes contributions and recommendations that were collected and provides guidance for future mission design, research activities, and sustainable operational radar altimetry data exploitation. Recommendations provided are fundamental for optimizing further scientific and operational advances of oceanographic observations by altimetry, including requirements for spatial and temporal resolution of altimetric measurements, their accuracy and continuity. There are also new challenges and new openings mentioned in the paper that are particularly crucial for observations at higher latitudes, for coastal oceanography, for cryospheric studies and for hydrology. The paper starts with a general introduction followed by a section on Earth System Science including Ocean Dynamics, Sea Level, the Coastal Ocean, Hydrology, the Cryosphere and Polar Oceans and the “Green” Ocean, extending the frontier from biogeochemistry to marine ecology. Applications are described in a subsequent section, which covers Operational Oceanography, Weather, Hurricane Wave and Wind Forecasting, Climate projection. Instruments’ development and satellite missions’ evolutions are described in a fourth section. A fifth section covers the key observations that altimeters provide and their potential complements, from other Earth observation measurements to in situ data. Section 6 identifies the data and methods and provides some accuracy and resolution requirements for the wet tropospheric correction, the orbit and other geodetic requirements, the Mean Sea Surface, Geoid and Mean Dynamic Topography, Calibration and Validation, data accuracy, data access and handling (including the DUACS system). Section 7 brings a transversal view on scales, integration, artificial intelligence, and capacity building (education and training). Section 8 reviews the programmatic issues followed by a conclusion

Altimetry for the future: Building on 25 years of progress

In 2018 we celebrated 25 years of development of radar altimetry, and the progress achieved by this methodology in the fields of global and coastal oceanography, hydrology, geodesy and cryospheric sciences. Many symbolic major events have celebrated these developments, e.g., in Venice, Italy, the 15th (2006) and 20th (2012) years of progress and more recently, in 2018, in Ponta Delgada, Portugal, 25 Years of Progress in Radar Altimetry. On this latter occasion it was decided to collect contributions of scientists, engineers and managers involved in the worldwide altimetry community to depict the state of altimetry and propose recommendations for the altimetry of the future. This paper summarizes contributions and recommendations that were collected and provides guidance for future mission design, research activities, and sustainable operational radar altimetry data exploitation. Recommendations provided are fundamental for optimizing further scientific and operational advances of oceanographic observations by altimetry, including requirements for spatial and temporal resolution of altimetric measurements, their accuracy and continuity. There are also new challenges and new openings mentioned in the paper that are particularly crucial for observations at higher latitudes, for coastal oceanography, for cryospheric studies and for hydrology. The paper starts with a general introduction followed by a section on Earth System Science including Ocean Dynamics, Sea Level, the Coastal Ocean, Hydrology, the Cryosphere and Polar Oceans and the ‘‘Green” Ocean, extending the frontier from biogeochemistry to marine ecology. Applications are described in a subsequent section, which covers Operational Oceanography, Weather, Hurricane Wave and Wind Forecasting, Climate projection. Instruments’ development and satellite missions’ evolutions are described in a fourth section. A fifth section covers the key observations that altimeters provide and their potential complements, from other Earth observation measurements to in situ data. Section 6 identifies the data and methods and provides some accuracy and resolution requirements for the wet tropospheric correction, the orbit and other geodetic requirements, the Mean Sea Surface, Geoid and Mean Dynamic Topography, Calibration and Validation, data accuracy, data access and handling (including the DUACS system). Section 7 brings a transversal view on scales, integration, artificial intelligence, and capacity building (education and training). Section 8 reviews the programmatic issues followed by a conclusion

Altimetry for the future: building on 25 years of progress

In 2018 we celebrated 25 years of development of radar altimetry, and the progress achieved by this methodology in the fields of global and coastal oceanography, hydrology, geodesy and cryospheric sciences. Many symbolic major events have celebrated these developments, e.g., in Venice, Italy, the 15th (2006) and 20th (2012) years of progress and more recently, in 2018, in Ponta Delgada, Portugal, 25 Years of Progress in Radar Altimetry. On this latter occasion it was decided to collect contributions of scientists, engineers and managers involved in the worldwide altimetry community to depict the state of altimetry and propose recommendations for the altimetry of the future. This paper summarizes contributions and recommendations that were collected and provides guidance for future mission design, research activities, and sustainable operational radar altimetry data exploitation. Recommendations provided are fundamental for optimizing further scientific and operational advances of oceanographic observations by altimetry, including requirements for spatial and temporal resolution of altimetric measurements, their accuracy and continuity. There are also new challenges and new openings mentioned in the paper that are particularly crucial for observations at higher latitudes, for coastal oceanography, for cryospheric studies and for hydrology. The paper starts with a general introduction followed by a section on Earth System Science including Ocean Dynamics, Sea Level, the Coastal Ocean, Hydrology, the Cryosphere and Polar Oceans and the “Green” Ocean, extending the frontier from biogeochemistry to marine ecology. Applications are described in a subsequent section, which covers Operational Oceanography, Weather, Hurricane Wave and Wind Forecasting, Climate projection. Instruments’ development and satellite missions’ evolutions are described in a fourth section. A fifth section covers the key observations that altimeters provide and their potential complements, from other Earth observation measurements to in situ data. Section 6 identifies the data and methods and provides some accuracy and resolution requirements for the wet tropospheric correction, the orbit and other geodetic requirements, the Mean Sea Surface, Geoid and Mean Dynamic Topography, Calibration and Validation, data accuracy, data access and handling (including the DUACS system). Section 7 brings a transversal view on scales, integration, artificial intelligence, and capacity building (education and training). Section 8 reviews the programmatic issues followed by a conclusion

Are Ocean Reanalyses Useful for Earth Rotation Research?

Oceanic circulation and mass‐field variability play important roles in exciting Earth's wobbles and length‐of‐day changes (ΔΛ), on time scales from days to several years. Modern descriptions of these effects employ oceanic angular momentum (OAM) series from numerical forward models or ocean state estimates, but nothing is known about how ocean reanalyses with sequential data assimilation (DA) would fare in that context. Here, we compute daily OAM series from three 1/4° global ocean reanalyses that are based on the same hydrodynamic core and input data (e.g., altimetry, Argo) but different DA schemes. Comparisons are carried out (a) among the reanalyses, (b) with an established ocean state estimate, and (c) with Earth rotation data, all focusing on the period 2006–2015. The reanalyses generally provide credible OAM estimates across a range of frequencies, although differences in amplitude spectra indicate a sensitivity to the adopted DA scheme. For periods less than 120 days, the reanalysis‐based OAM series explain ∼40%–50% and ∼30%–40% of the atmosphere‐corrected equatorial and axial geodetic excitation, similar to what is achieved with the state estimate. We find mixed performance of the reanalyses in seasonal excitation budgets, with some questionable mean ocean mass changes affecting the annual cycle in ΔΛ. Modeled excitations at interannual frequencies are more uncertain compared to OAM series from the state estimate and show hints of DA artifacts in one case. If users are to choose any of the tested reanalyses for rotation research, our study points to the Ocean Reanalysis System 5 as the most sensible choice.Key Points: We evaluate three ocean reanalyses for their skill in explaining Earth rotation variations on different time scales from 2006 to 2015. For periods <120 days, reanalyses explain 40%–50% of atmosphere‐reduced polar motion excitation variance, similar to an ocean state estimate. Reanalyses show mixed skill in seasonal excitation budgets and, in one case, hints of data assimilation artifacts at interannual periods.Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft http://dx.doi.org/10.13039/501100001659https://resources.marine.copernicus.eu/product-detail/GLOBAL_REANALYSIS_PHY_001_031/INFORMATIONhttps://isdc.gfz-potsdam.de/ggfc-oceans/oam/https://www.ncei.noaa.gov/access/metadata/landing-page/bin/iso?id=gov.noaa.ngdc.mgg.dem:316https://podaac-tools.jpl.nasa.gov/drive/files/GeodeticsGravity/tellus/L3/mascon/RL06/JPL/v02/CRI/netcdfhttps://keof.jpl.nasa.gov/combinations

Are Ocean Reanalyses Useful for Earth Rotation Research?

Abstract Oceanic circulation and mass‐field variability play important roles in exciting Earth's wobbles and length‐of‐day changes (ΔΛ), on time scales from days to several years. Modern descriptions of these effects employ oceanic angular momentum (OAM) series from numerical forward models or ocean state estimates, but nothing is known about how ocean reanalyses with sequential data assimilation (DA) would fare in that context. Here, we compute daily OAM series from three 1/4° global ocean reanalyses that are based on the same hydrodynamic core and input data (e.g., altimetry, Argo) but different DA schemes. Comparisons are carried out (a) among the reanalyses, (b) with an established ocean state estimate, and (c) with Earth rotation data, all focusing on the period 2006–2015. The reanalyses generally provide credible OAM estimates across a range of frequencies, although differences in amplitude spectra indicate a sensitivity to the adopted DA scheme. For periods less than 120 days, the reanalysis‐based OAM series explain ∼40%–50% and ∼30%–40% of the atmosphere‐corrected equatorial and axial geodetic excitation, similar to what is achieved with the state estimate. We find mixed performance of the reanalyses in seasonal excitation budgets, with some questionable mean ocean mass changes affecting the annual cycle in ΔΛ. Modeled excitations at interannual frequencies are more uncertain compared to OAM series from the state estimate and show hints of DA artifacts in one case. If users are to choose any of the tested reanalyses for rotation research, our study points to the Ocean Reanalysis System 5 as the most sensible choice

Modeling gravimetric signatures of third-degree ocean tides and their detection in superconducting gravimeter records

We employ the barotropic, data-unconstrained ocean tide model TiME to derive an atlas for degree-3 tidal constituents including monthly to terdiurnal tidal species. The model is optimized with respect to the tide gauge data set TICON-td that is extended to include the respective tidal constituents of diurnal and higher frequencies. The tide gauge validation shows a root-mean-square (RMS) deviation of 0.9–1.3 mm for the individual species. We further model the load tide-induced gravimetric signals by two means (1) a global load Love number approach and (2) evaluating Greens-integrals at 16 selected locations of superconducting gravimeters. The RMS deviation between the amplitudes derived using both methods is below 0.5 nGal (1 nGal =0.01nms2) when excluding near-coastal gravimeters. Utilizing ETERNA-x, a recently upgraded and reworked tidal analysis software, we additionally derive degree-3 gravimetric tidal constituents for these stations, based on a hypothesis-free wave grouping approach. We demonstrate that this analysis is feasible, yielding amplitude predictions of only a few 10 nGal, and that it agrees with the modeled constituents on a level of 63–80% of the mean signal amplitude. Larger deviations are only found for lowest amplitude signals, near-coastal stations, or shorter and noisier data sets