Abstract

Improving Antarctic tide models by assimilation of ICESat laser altimetry over ice shelves

Laurie Padman
Earth & Space Research, 3350 SW Cascade Ave., Corvallis, OR 97333-1536, USA

Lana Erofeeva
College of Oceanic & Atmospheric Sciences, 104 COAS Administration Building, Oregon State University, Corvallis, OR 97331-5503, USA

Helen Amanda Fricker
Institute of Geophysics and Planetary Physics, Scripps Institution of Oceanography, University of California, San Diego, La Jolla, CA 92093, USA




Assimilation of laser altimeter data from the Ice, Cloud and land Elevation Satellite (ICESat) significantly improves the accuracy of ocean tide models for the Ross Ice Shelf (RIS). For the most energetic tidal harmonic, K1, assimilation reduces the root-mean-square error (RMSE) between the model and a set of 16 independent tide records on and near the RIS from 6.0 to 2.8 cm, and the combined RMSE for the six most energetic tidal harmonics from 7.7 to 5.4 cm. When only the six most recent and highest-quality tide records are considered, the combined RMSE is 4.8 cm. This value is close to the uncertainty expected from tidal analyses of the short (~1- 2 month) validation records, indicating that assessing further improvements in tide model accuracy will require development of a higher quality validation data set.




Download complete paper and auxiliary materials ZIP (1.94 Mb)


This Paper is published in Geosphysical Research Letters and may also be downloaded from the AGU site: http://www.agu.org/pubs/crossref/2008/2008GL035592.shtml






Return to Online Documents