Oceanwide Precise Determination of Sea Surface Height from In-Situ Measurements on Cargo Ships

Abstract

Thanks to the latest developments in GNSS data processing the antenna heights aboard a ship can be determined with accuracies of up to 5 cm, also in the open ocean. These heights are a good basis to derive precise in-situ data of sea surface heights independently from satellite altimetry. However, for a reliable determination of sea surface heights, some essential hydrostatic and hydrodynamic corrections must be considered, as explained in this paper. Furthermore, an ocean wide determination of sea surface height from measurements on a container ship in the Pacific Ocean is presented. The results are compared with those from the Jason-2 altimeter.

Keywords:

• GNSS
• In-Situ
• Oceanwide
• Sea Surface Heights
• Ship

Acknowledgements

We would like to thank the crew of Monte Verde and the teams of Hamburg-Süd and Columbus Ship Management for their excellent support during this campaign. Special thanks are due to Hydrographic Office of the Marine Department of the Government of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region for providing tide gauge data. We thank Anne Laupichler for help with CFD calculations and Tobias Berndt for logistic support.