The Altimetry Atlas


About the Mean Sea Surface and Gravity Anomaly Maps

The following mean sea surface and gravity anomaly maps of the oceans were computed from a combined solution of satellite altimeter data gathered by a number of satellites: GEOSAT, ERS-1 and TOPEX/Poseidon. The data was merged into one dataset, orbit error was eliminated using crossover minimisation. A paper giving more information on the applied procedure is listed in the references below.

The gravity anomaly map of the Indian Ocean was computed from a combined data set containing altimetric data from GEOSAT, ERS-1 and TOPEX-Poseidon. The Atlantic Ocean map is computed from ERS-1 and TOPEX-Poseidon data only. To go the contents pages of the maps click on one of the maps below. A series of perspective views of the Indian Ocean mean sea surface is also available, these were created using a ray-tracer (POV).

Gravity Anomaly Atlas of the Indian Ocean
Gravity Anomaly Atlas of the Atlantic Ocean
Perspective views of the Mean Sea Surface of the Indian Ocean
Interactive map plotter


Some other institutes offer access to similar maps, for instance:
  • Global Bathymetry and Marine Gravity Models at the National Space Institute of the Technical University of Denmark

  • References

    E. Wisse, R. Scharroo, M. C. Naeije, and K. F. Wakker
    Mean sea surface computation from ERS-1 data
    Proceedings of the Second ERS-1 Symposium - Space at the Service of our Environment, Hamburg, Germany, 11-14 October 1993, ESA SP-361
    pp. 1053-1058, January 1994

    This page is maintained by
    Remko Scharroo, remko.scharroo@lr.tudelft.nl