Abstract

The emergence of satellite altimetry has allowed us to determine the ocean surface with a great precision; it also allows a large contribution for most applications and oceanographic activities. The geometric principle of space altimetry is to measure the range between the satellite and the sea surface. The objective of this paper is to estimate the geophysical parameters (sea state bias, ocean tide and the orbital error) affecting the altimetric measurements for Jason-1 satellite, using the analytical and empirical models. The comparison of the estimated and provided values permit to minimize the default values for  QUOTE   and improve its estimation, and also improve the ocean tide estimation. The comparison of obtained results of six (6) years Jason-1 data processing on the western Mediterranean of every parameter with data transmitted in the satellite message permitted us to validate our developed methodological approach. The quality of these results permits the determination of the Western Mediterranean mean sea level.

Key words: Mean sea level, altimetry, estimation, sea state bias, ocean tide, orbit, Jason-1.