Geoscience Reference
In-Depth Information
Fig. 15
Difference of the geoid height variation in millimeter for the thin layer approach between
the variant with and without loading for January 1, 2008, 00 UTC
10
0
TL
loading
TL
loading
− TL
wo loading
GRACE sensitivity
theoretical sensitivity
10
−2
−4
10
−6
10
10
−8
0
20
40
60
80
100
Degree
Fig. 16
Degree standard deviation in terms of geoid height in meter for the year 2008, in
blue
for the TL approach with loading, in red the corresponding difference of VI without loading. The
black line
marks the GRACE RL04 error level, the
dashed
one the theoretical error as obtained by
pre-launch simulations
4 The Atmosphere and the Ocean
Generally, the ocean responds to atmospheric forcing like wind, pressure, evap-
oration, precipitation, and radiation from the Sun. The responses are classically
divided into barotropic and baroclinic ones (Higdon
2008
). Barotropic is the depth-
independent part of the flow. In classic wind-driven ocean circulation theory, it is
