A comparison of coincidental time series of the ocean surface height by satellite altimeter, mooring, and inverted echo sounder

Altimetric measurements of sea surface height at two locations in the western tropical Pacific Ocean are compared to estimates of the dynamic sea surface height computed from cotemporal surface-to-bottom temperature/salinity measurements on moorings and acoustic travel time measured by bottom-moored inverted echo sounders. The results show statistically high correlation between the in situ measurements at periods greater than 5 days and between the altimeter and in situ measurements at periods greater than 20 days. The rms difference between any two modes of observation is consistently between 2 and 3 cm.