人工衛星による海底圧力変動観測の試み

Possibility to observe variations of the ocean bottom pressure by satellites is qualitatively discussed. Seasonal variations of the sea surface dynamic height obtained by satellite altimetry agree well in phase with those of the ocean bottom pressure in a numerical ocean model, but are larger than expected barotropic signals from the latter, which suggests presence of variations other than barotropic component. Meanwhile, satellite gravity missions can provide observations of the ocean bottom pressure without contamination from baroclinic and steric height components. However, accuracy of their observations is found too low at present to be used for physical oceanographic studies.