Abstract
The focus of this study was first to determine the most suitable geophysical correction models for obtaining satellite-derived sea level height time series in the South China Sea (SCS; 0–26° N, 99° E–121 °E). Analysis of difference of the sea level anomaly standard deviation was conducted to assess the quality of the various correction models. The set of correction models was used to establish the continuous satellite-derived sea level height time series. Harmonic and response analysis methods were carried out for primary mission and interleaved mission along-track data, respectively, to extract the harmonic constants of eight major tidal constituents. We evaluated the quality of satellite-derived tidal constituents, which were derived from TOPEX/Poseidon, Jason-1, Jason-2, and Jason-3 over a 25-year period from February 1993 to January 2018, by a detailed comparison with values extracted from 27 tide gauge observations. The results showed that satellite-derived tidal constituents have high precision in most shallow water areas, but there are inevitably still some locations with large errors and poor predictability.
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Acknowledgements
The authors are very grateful to the Radar Altimeter Database System (RADS) for providing the satellite altimetry data and the main geophysical correction models and UHSLC providing the tide gauge data. This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (41706115, 41876111), the National Key R&D Program of China (2017YFC0306003, 2016YFB0501700 and 2016YFB0501703), and the Natural Science Foundation of Shandong Province (ZR2017QD011).
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Fu, Y., Zhou, D., Zhou, X. et al. Evaluation of satellite-derived tidal constituents in the South China Sea by adopting the most suitable geophysical correction models. J Oceanogr 76, 183–196 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10872-019-00537-2
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10872-019-00537-2