Norwegian Validation and Exploitation of GOCE Gravity Data, 2012

The Nordic countries constitute a key study region for research in Earth system sciences, especially oceanography and solid earth physics. The climate in the Nordic area is strongly affected by ocean currents in the North Atlantic. A detailed description of the currents is a key to a better understanding of regional and interrelated global climate mechanisms. A crucial quantity for respective investigations is detailed knowledge of the marine geoid, the horizontal surface at mean sea level, from which the time averaged ocean surface deviates due to steady-state ocean
circulation. On March 17th 2009, the European Space Agency (ESA) launched its first Earth Explorer Core Mission, the highly sophisticated dedicated gravity satellite GOCE. The mission will deliver homogeneous information on the static geoid with unprecedented accuracy and spatial resolution.