Next: The optimization method Up: No Title Previous: Model configuration

Data used to constrain the model

The model is constrained by 1) TOPEX/POSEIDON mean sea surface relative to the EGM96 geoid (Lemoine et al., 1997), 2) TOPEX/POSEIDON sea level anomalies (SLA) with respect to the mean surface, 3) monthly fields of T and S from a climatology (Levitus, 1994) and monthly sea surface temperature fields during 1993 (Reynolds and Smith, 1994). The SLA are provided as daily along-track data. The figure below compares the mean sea surface as simulated by the unconstrained model with the one observed by altimetry. The general similarity of the fields is a prerequisite for carrying out any assimilation.

**Figure 2:**
$\begin{figure} \setlength{\unitlength}{1cm} \begin{picture} (16,10)(1,-0) \e... ...=wmo_sshmmean.ps, height=480pt, width=300pt, angle=90}\end{picture} \end{figure}$

Detlef Stammer
1999-06-22