Posted by Randy Watts on December 09, 2001 at 13:03:09:
Hi Deirdre,
sorry to be delayed in reading this poster. Fig 16 has me puzzled about what you did, and which symbols mean what. Maybe it's just a matter of terminology.
Detided SSH is the sum of a steric height (variously called geopotential height and dynamic height),
plus a "barotropic" height (that varies as the hydrostatic bottom pressure and total mass above the bottom varies).
-- we need a unique descriptive name for this "barotropic" part.
You parameterize the lookup tables in GEM-ETTA by tau and steric height (not SSH) because we can calculate these parameters from historical hydrographic data.
Hence I think you're attempting to estimate steric height (not SSH) at the BEST sites
by subtracting the hydrostatic height (determined from the bottom pressure record) from the altimeter SSH.
Right?
-Randy