Abstract:

Combining a new geoid model (EIGEN-GL04S) recovered from GRACE mission and the KMSS04 model, a new mean dynamic ocean topography (MDT) model are estimated over the Antarctic region. The surface Antarctic Circumpolar Current (ACC) field and its Polar Front (PF) and sub-Antarctic Front (SAF) are derived from MDT after filtering with a wavelet denoising method. Comparing the MDT, surface ACC, PF and SAF with those from previous geoid model (EGM96)/altimetry, merged MDT and the ocean hydrological data (WOA01), separately, the results show that the ACC from GRACE agree well with WOA01 map in general, and reveal more details than all other results. These indicate that the accuracy of EIGEN-GL04S model has been improved greatly over pre-existing models at long wavelengths and the ACC detected by satellite measurement has reached relatively high precision at large and middle scale.