ORBIT AND TIDE ERROR REDUCTION FOR THE FIRST 2 YEARS OF TOPEX POSEIDON DATA/

More than 2 years of TOPEX/POSEIDON data (repeat cycles 1-81) are proc essed with orbit and tide error reduction schemes that preserve the oc eanic signal. The rms crossover difference (XD) between heights belong ing to the same cycle is a good measure of the errors because the real oceanic variability manifests little of itself in times less than 10 days. This rms XD is reduced from 10.8 to 8.1 cm after the tide error correction and to 6.0 cm after the orbit error reduction and editing, a more than threefold reduction in power, even for the remarkably erro r-free TOPEX/POSEIDON data. If the mesoscale variability that manages to reveal itself in less than 10 days (e.g., in the western boundary c urrents) and residual coastal tide errors are screened out, the global area-weighted residual XD is only 4.3 cm, implying that for variabili ty studies the residual error is only 3.0 cm for instantaneous point m easurements of altimetric sea level away from coastal regions, far exc eeding the prelaunch mission requirement. The important issue of signa l preservation (which has been shown analytically elsewhere) is addres sed here directly using data treated with orbit reduction as well as u ntreated data. It is shown that the time-compartmentalized orbit error reduction leaves the annual heating and cooling cycle intact as antic ipated by the analytical proof, whereas conventional orbit error remov al procedures would wreak havoc. The error of the Cartwright and Ray ( 1991) tide model is estimated to be in excess of 5 cm (global area-wei ghted rms including shallow seas). The crossover-difference-inducing p art of the orbit correction (which includes any short-term, large-scal e, along-track variations) is estimated to be 3.3 cm (along-track rms) for the Joint Gravity Model 2 orbit. The total orbit error is estimat ed to be 3.5 cm, an independent confirmation of estimates based on sat ellite tracking and other means.