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Sea surface heights obtained from Modular Ocean Model simulation and comparison with Topex/Poseidon data for the Indian Ocean

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Abstract

The Modular Ocean Model (MOM) is perhaps the most versatile ocean model available today for the simulation of the large scale circulation of the ocean. The Topex/Poseidon altimeter which has been operating since September 1992 has been providing sea surface heights (SSH) of the accuracy of 5–10 cms with a repeat cycle of 10 days. We examine in this paper, the SSH in the Indian Ocean obtained from a global simulation of MOM with a resolution of 1° in the longitude, 1/3° in the latitude between 30°S and 30°N and 20 levels in the vertical with climatological windforcing and restoring conditions on temperature and salinity. They are compared with the SSH from the Topex/Poseidon altimeter after suitable filtering in the time domain to remove smaller time and length scales. In addition, unfiltered data from both sources are analysed by estimating the cross-spectral density to find the coherence and crossphase at different frequencies. The agreement between the two, over most of the Northern Indian Ocean, especially the Arabian Sea and the Bay of Bengal is quite good.

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Abbreviations

λ:

Longitude

ϕ:

Latitude

u:

Zonal velocity

v :

Meridional velocity

L(u):

Advective operator

f:

Coriolis parameter

ρ0:

Reference density

a:

Radius of the earth

p:

Pressure

Km :

Vertical eddy viscosity

Fu :

Horizontal friction terms in equation 1

Fv :

Horizontal friction terms in equation 2

ψ:

Stream function

H:

Ocean depth

Ps :

Surface pressure

FU:

Vertical Integrals defined in equation 5

FV:

Vertical Integral defined in equation 6

Гxy(ω):

Cross-spectral density estimate defined in equation 11

W(k):

Set of weights in equation 11

υxy(k):

Cross-covariance at lag k

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Author notes

  1. K. S. Yajnik

    Present address: , Regal Manor, 2/1 Bride St, 560 025, Langford Town, Bangalore, India

Authors and Affiliations

  1. CSIR Centre for Mathematical Modelling and Computer Simulation (C-MMACS), 560 037, Bangalore, India

    P. S. Swathi & K. S. Yajnik

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  1. P. S. Swathi
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Swathi, P.S., Yajnik, K.S. Sea surface heights obtained from Modular Ocean Model simulation and comparison with Topex/Poseidon data for the Indian Ocean. Proc. Indian Acad. Sci. (Earth Planet Sci.) 106, 43–53 (1997). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02841750

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