Advances in surface water and ocean topography for fine-scale eddy identification from altimeter sea surface height merging maps in the South China Sea

Zhang, Xiaoya; Liu, Lei; Fei, Jianfang; Li, Zhijin; Wei, Zexun; Zhang, Zhiwei; Jiang, Xingliang; Dong, Zexin; Xu, Feng

doi:https://doi.org/10.5194/os-21-1033-2025

Articles | Volume 21, issue 3

https://doi.org/10.5194/os-21-1033-2025

© Author(s) 2025. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

https://doi.org/10.5194/os-21-1033-2025

© Author(s) 2025. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

Articles | Volume 21, issue 3

Research article

|

16 Jun 2025

Research article |

| 16 Jun 2025

Advances in surface water and ocean topography for fine-scale eddy identification from altimeter sea surface height merging maps in the South China Sea

Xiaoya Zhang, Lei Liu, Jianfang Fei, Zhijin Li, Zexun Wei, Zhiwei Zhang, Xingliang Jiang, Zexin Dong, and Feng Xu

Data sets

SWOT Level-3 KaRIn Low Rate SSH Basic (1.0) AVISO/DUACS https://doi.org/10.24400/527896/A01-2023.017

Gridded Level-4 Sea Surface Heights Nrt Copernicus Marine Service repository https://doi.org/10.48670/moi-00149

Gridded Level-4 Sea Surface Heights Reprocessed Copernicus Marine Service repository https://doi.org/10.48670/moi-00148

2DVAR Dataset for paper "Advances in surface water and ocean topography for fine-scale eddy identification from altimeter sea surface height merging maps in the South China Sea'' X. Zhang https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.11219285

Model code and software

Code for paper "Advances in surface water and ocean topography for fine-scale eddy identification from altimeter sea surface height merging maps in the South China Sea'' X. Zhang https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.13629576

Short summary

Our research evaluated the precision of mapping the ocean's surface with combined data from a couple of satellites, focusing on dynamic aspects revealed by sea level changes. The results show that 2DVAR (two-dimensional variation), a new mapping product, aligns more closely and with less error with the most advanced satellite observations than a widely used mapping product called AVISO (Archiving, Validation, and Interpretation of Satellite Oceanographic). The results suggest that 2DVAR detects minor ocean movements better, making it more valuable and reliable for ocean dynamic study.