The global mean sea surface model WHU2013

AbstractThe mean sea surface (MSS) model is an important reference for the study of charting datum and sea level change. A global MSS model named WHU2013, with 2′ × 2′ spatial resolution between 80°S and 84°N, is established in this paper by combining nearly 20 years of multi-satellite altimetric data that include Topex/Poseidon (T/P), Jason-1, Jason-2, ERS-2, ENVISAT and GFO Exact Repeat Mission (ERM) data, ERS-1/168, Jason-1/C geodetic mission data and Cryosat-2 low resolution mode (LRM) data. All the ERM data are adjusted by the collinear method to achieve the mean along-track sea surface height (SSH), and the combined dataset of T/P, Jason-1 and Jason-2 from 1993 to 2012 after collinear adjustment is used as the reference data. The sea level variations in the non-ERM data (geodetic mission data and LRM data) are mainly investigated, and a combined method is proposed to correct the sea level variations between 66°S and 66°N by along-track sea level variation time series and beyond 66°S or 66°N by seasonal sea level variations. In the crossover adjustment between multi-altimetric data, a stepwise method is used to solve the problem of inconsistency in the reference data between the high and low latitude regions. The proposed model is compared with the CNES-CLS2011 and DTU13 MSS models, and the standard derivation (STD) of the differences between the models is about 5 cm between 80°S and 84°N, less than 3 cm between 66°S and 66°N, and less than 4 cm in the China Sea and its adjacent sea. Furthermore, the three models exhibit a good agreement in the SSH differences and the along-track gradient of SSH following comparisons with satellite altimetry data

Evaluation of spaceborne GNSS-R based sea surface altimetry using multiple constellation signals

Comparisons between different global navigation satellite system (GNSS) signals and GNSS-reflectometry (GNSS-R) satellite systems can provide valuable suggestions for future development of the GNSS-R instrument and signal processing method. This article evaluates the ocean altimetry performance of multiple GNSS constellation signals using raw intermediate frequency data collected by Cyclone GNSS (CYGNSS) and TechDemoSat-1 (TDS-1) satellites. Data used for the evaluation include observations of GPS L1, Galileo E1, and BDS B1 band signal. The specular point position and the ground-truth bistatic delay are calculated through the HALF method. After ionospheric, tropospheric, and tide corrections, the sea surface height can be retrieved; and then the height is compared with the DTU18 mean sea surface model derived one. Based on the GNSS-R satellite-collected observations, an optimal incoherent integral duration is determined. By making use of the optimal duration, the CYGNSS-based ranging delay estimating accuracy can reach up to 2.38 m, 1.98 m, and 1.91 m for GPS, Galileo and BDS, respectively; and the TDS-1 based one can reach up to 5.46 m and 3.84 m for GPS and Galileo, respectively. The results can provide suggestion on the strategies of multi-constellation observations fusion to improve the altimetry accuracy

The Influence of ENSO on the Long‐Term Water Storage Anomalies in the Middle‐Lower Reaches of the Yangtze River Basin: Evaluation and Analysis

Recent extreme events in the Middle‐Lower reaches of the Yangtze River basin (MLYRB) are proven to be possibly linked to the El Niño‐Southern Oscillation (ENSO) events as indicated by terrestrial water storage anomaly (TWSA). But the relatively short observation time of Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment series missions (2002–2017; 2018–present) affects the robustness of the evaluation of TWSA. Here, the applicability of four long‐term TWSA data sets (since 1979) in the MLYRB is evaluated first using an evaluation framework including two completely independent tests. After selecting the optimal one, we investigate the effects of ENSO on TWSA in the MLYRB at the basin, subbasin, and grid cell scales, respectively. Results show that ENSO, especially the Eastern Pacific type ENSO has had a significant impact on TWSA variations in the MLYRB and its two subbasins (the Dongting Lake basin and the Poyang Lake basin) since 1979 with correlation coefficients at 0.56–0.65 and time lags at 5–6 months. However, TWSAs in the other two subbasins (the Hanjiang River basin and the Mainstream River basin) have almost no correlation with ENSO. Further analysis reveals that compared with human activity that has a limited impact on TWSA, precipitation is one of the key inducements for regional water storage changes in these two subbasins, and the no correlation between ENSO and TWSA is mainly caused by the weak link between ENSO and precipitation

Estimation of component contributions to total terrestrial water storage change in the Yangtze River basin

Terrestrial water storage (TWS) is a key variable in global and regional hydrological cycles. In this study, the TWS changes in the Yangtze River Basin (YRB) were derived using the Lagrange multiplier method (LMM) from Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment (GRACE) data. To assess TWS changes from LMM, different GRACE solutions, different hydrological models, and in situ data were used for validation. Results show that TWS changes from LMM in YRB has the best performance with the correlation coefficients of 0.80 and root mean square error of 1.48 cm in comparison with in situ data. The trend of TWS changes over the YRB increased by 10.39 ± 1.27 Gt yr-1 during the 2003−2015 period. Moreover, TWS change is disintegrated into the individual contributions of hydrological components (i.e., glaciers, surface water, soil moisture, and groundwater) from satellite data, hydrologic models, and in situ data. The estimated changes in individual TWS components in the YRB show that (1) the contribution of glaciers, surface water, soil moisture, and groundwater to total TWS changes is 15%, 12%, 25% and 48%, respectively; (2) Geladandong glacier melt from CryoSat-2/ICESat data has a critical effect on TWS changes with a correlation coefficients of −0.51; (3) the Three Gorges Reservoir Impoundment has a minimal effect on surface water changes (mainly lake water storage), but it has a substantial effect on groundwater storage (GWS), (4) the Poyang and Doting Lake water storage changes are mainly caused by climate change, (5) soil moisture storage change is mainly influenced by surface water, (6) human-induced GWS changes accounted for approximately half of the total GWS. The results of this study can provide valuable information for decision-making in water resources management

Is China's fifth-largest inland lake to dry-up? Incorporated hydrological and satellite-based methods for forecasting Hulun Lake water levels

Hulun Lake, China’s fifth-largest inland lake, experienced severe declines in water level in the period of 2000-2010. This has prompted concerns whether the lake is drying up gradually. A multi-million US dollar engineering project to construct a water channel to transfer part of the river flow from a nearby river to maintain the water level was completed in August 2010. This study aimed to advance the understanding of the key processes controlling the lake water level variation over the last five decades, as well as investigate the impact of the river transfer engineering project on the water level. A water balance model was developed to investigate the lake water level variations over the last five decades, using hydrological and climatic data as well as satellite-based measurements and results from land surface modelling. The investigation reveals that the severe reduction of river discharge (-364±64 mm/yr, ~70% of the five-decade average) into the lake was the key factor behind the decline of the lake water level between 2000 and 2010. The decline of river discharge was due to the reduction of total runoff from the lake watershed. This was a result of the reduction of soil moisture due to the decrease of precipitation (-49±45 mm/yr) over this period. The water budget calculation suggests that the groundwater component from the surrounding lake area as well as surface run off from the un-gauged area surrounding the lake contributed ~ net 210 Mm3/yr (equivalent to ~ 100 mm/yr) water inflows into the lake. The results also show that the water diversion project did prevent a further water level decline of over 0.5 m by the end of 2012. Overall, the monthly water balance model gave an excellent prediction of the lake water level fluctuation over the last five decades and can be a useful tool to manage lake water resources in the future

Suitable region of dynamic optimal interpolation for efficiently altimetry sea surface height mapping

The dynamic optimal interpolation (DOI) method is a technique based on quasi-geostrophic dynamics for merging multi-satellite altimeter along-track observations to generate gridded absolute dynamic topography (ADT). Compared with the linear optimal interpolation (LOI) method, the DOI method can improve the accuracy of gridded ADT locally but with low computational efficiency. Consequently, considering both computational efficiency and accuracy, the DOI method is more suitable to be used only for regional applications. In this study, we propose to evaluate the suitable region for applying the DOI method based on the correlation between the absolute value of the Jacobian operator of the geostrophic stream function and the improvement achieved by the DOI method. After verifying the LOI and DOI methods, the suitable region was investigated in three typical areas: the Gulf Stream (25°N-50°N, 55°W-80°W), the Japanese Kuroshio (25°N-45°N, 135°E−155°E), and the South China Sea (5°N-25°N, 100°E−125°E). We propose to use the DOI method only in regions outside the equatorial region and where the absolute value of the Jacobian operator of the geostrophic stream function is higher than 1 × 10−11

HY-2A Altimeter Data Initial Assessment and Corresponding Two-Pass Waveform Retracker

The accuracy and resolution of the marine gravity field derived from multisatellite altimeter data sets mainly depend on the corresponding range precision and spatial distribution. Here, we preliminarily investigate the performance of HY-2A altimeter data by analyzing cross-mission sea surface height discrepancies with SARAL/AltiKa and calculating correlation coefficients with respect to tide gauge measurements. We also explore the improved range precision that can be achieved using a two-pass weighted least squares retracker which was proposed for the purpose of optimal gravity field recovery. Firstly, both the exact repetitive mission and the geodetic mission for HY-2A provide new track orientations and different data coverage for recovering the marine gravity field, and these dense geographical distributions are more greatly attributed to the geodetic mission in recent years. Secondly, HY-2A provides reliable sea surface height measurements based on exterior verifications by SARAL/AltiKa geophysical data records and tide gauge measurements, although the accuracy level is slightly lower than SARAL/AltiKa. Another more exciting finding is that the statistics of along-track sea surface heights in one-second intervals show that the two-pass retracking does further improve the range precision by a factor of 1.6 with respect to 20 Hz retracked results in sensor data records. In conclusion, the HY-2A mission can substantially improve the global accuracy and resolution of the marine gravity field and will reveal new tectonic features such as microplates, abyssal hill fabric, and new uncharted seamounts on the ocean floor

Variability of the Kuroshio extension system in 1992–2013 from satellite altimetry data

The Kuroshio Extension (KE) plays an important role in climate and environmental change in the North Pacific. In this paper, more than 20 years of merged absolute dynamic topography and merged sea level anomaly products from satellite altimetry are used to analyze the stability of the KE system. By analyzing the annually averaged sea surface topography, the variations of inter-annual path and annually averaged eddy kinetic energy at the KE region, the KE's two dynamic states are given as: the relatively stable state during 1993–1995, 2002–2005, and 2010–2012, and the unstable dynamic state among 1996–2001 and 2006–2009. During the stable state, the KE spindle had a shorter path length and smaller time-varying amplitude, as well as a trend to move northward. While during the unstable state, the KE spindle had a longer path length and an integral southward transport trend, and was observed to oscillate significantly over time. The analysis on the KE's upstream and downstream region gives the same variations, indicating that they are significantly affected by the El Nino events. The power spectrum of the mean latitudinal position variation of the KE's upstream and downstream shows significant quasi-decadal oscillation characteristics and strong annual signals. Furthermore, the correlation of the strength variation between the southern RG and the KE's upstream is calculated to be 0.50 after low-pass filtering, and that of the mean latitudinal position variation between the southern RG and the KE's upstream/downstream are 0.75/0.69 after low-pass filtering, respectively. The strong correlations demonstrated that the southern RG and the KE are closely linked