Estimating the North Atlantic mean dynamic topography and geostrophic currents with GOCE

Three GOCE gravity models were released in July 2010 based on two months of observations. Subsequently, two second generation models, based on 8 months of observations, were released in March 2011. This paper compares these five models in terms of the mean North Atlantic circulation that can be derived from them. Because the high degree commission errors of all of the GOCE models are lower than those from the best satellite only GRACE solution, all of the derived GOCE MDTs are much less noisy than the GRACE MDT They therefore require less severe filtering and, as a consequence, the strength of the currents calculated from them are in better agreement with those from an in-situ drifter based estimate. Where the comparison is possible, the reduction in MDT noise from the first to second releases is also clear. However, given that some filtering is still required, this translates into only a small improvement in ocean currents. This is. primarily, a reflection of the limitation of the filtering method employed, and indicates the need for more sophisticated MDT filtering strategies.