Long wavelength sea surface topography model from GEOSAT altimeter data (1986, Dec. 14-31)

The sea surface topography (SSTop) spherical harmonic model, being complete through degree and order 10, has a spatial half wavelength resolution of 2000 km. It is derived in a joint orbit/gravity/SSTop solution (GRIM4-C3T) exploiting GEOSAT (doppler- and) altimeter data of observation period 1986, Dec. 14-31. The overall standard deviation is estimated to be about 15 cm. Satellite tracking data of 30 satellites and 10x10 mean gravity anomalies have been exploited along with the altimeter data for the complete solution.