The north-south tilt in the Australian Height Datum is explained by the ocean’s mean dynamic topography

Using geodetic and oceanographic data, we show that the apparent north-south slope between the Australian Height Datum (AHD) and the geoid is caused almost completely by the ocean’s time-mean dynamic topography (MDT). This is because the AHD was constrained to zero height at local mean sea level at...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Featherstone, Will, Filmer, Michael
Format: Journal Article
Published: American Geophysical Union 2012
Subjects:
Online Access:http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11937/13616
Description
Summary:Using geodetic and oceanographic data, we show that the apparent north-south slope between the Australian Height Datum (AHD) and the geoid is caused almost completely by the ocean’s time-mean dynamic topography (MDT). This is because the AHD was constrained to zero height at local mean sea level at multiple tide gauges around the Australian continent. Using MDT models and corrected leveling data, almost all of the apparent north-south slope can be removed from the AHD. An auxiliary observation is that a satellite-only MDT model based on only around one year of GOCE data generates results commensurate with geodetic, oceanographic and combined MDT models.