Abstract
SEASAT-1 altimeter data (from July 28 to August 8, 1978) are used to obtain the sea surface height distribution over the Kuroshio Extension, east of Japan. Data along 17 orbits are processed to minimize the root mean square (RMS) of the difference between the two surface height values at each intersecting point (47 points in all). Both the biases and linear trends of surface height along the orbits are taken into consideration.
The resulting RMS of the height differences is about 11 cm, which is the same order in magnitude as the accuracy of the altimeter itself (±10 cm).
The surface height maps are drawn, first, with a subjective method using only mean values at the intersecting points, and secondly with an objective method by the two-dimensional cubic spline interpolation using all the height data. The two maps are qualitatively the same. Major patterns are considered to be a part of the Kuroshio Extension, although noisy highs remain, which are possibly effects of sea mounts unresolved in the applied geoid.
