Mapping the sea surface using a GPS buoy

On May 22 and 24, 1995, a buoy, designed to float with the water surface and equipped with a GPS antenna, was deployed off the California coast at 16 locations near the Texaco oil platform, Harvest. The purpose of this deployment was threefold:.(1) to demonstrate the ability of this style of buoy to calibrate the TOPEXIPOSEIDON (TIP) altimeter range measurement as it overflew the platform: (2) to demonstrate the ability of the buoy to map the ocean's surface over a 10‐km‐diameter circle surrounding platform Harvest; and (3) to demonstrate the ability of the buoy to measure the sea state accurately. During the 1.6‐h period surrounding the time of the TIP overflight, the buoy‐measured sea level never differed by more than 1.5 cm from the sea level measured by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) acoustic tide gauge on the platform. The good agreement demonstrated the capability of this style of buoy to calibrate altimetric satellites. A paraboloid was fitted to sea level from 16 buoy locations surrounding the platform with a 2.5‐cm rms residual. On a 10‐km‐diameter circle centered on the platform, the paraboloid was within 2.4‐cm rms of the Ohio State University Mean Sea Surface (OSUMSS95). H _u3 values calculated around the overflight times from the GPS buoy vertical positions had a mean difference of 2 cm and a standard deviation of 18 cm from values calculated from the University of Colorado (CU) pressure gauge system. At the time of the overflight, H _u3 was near 2 m, while 3‐m seas were observed by the CU pressure system during measurements later in the day. This experiment demonstrates that a simple wave‐rider buoy design can give comparable accuracies to that of more complex GPS platforms such as the University of Colorado's spar buoy, but is much easier to deploy and capable of being used in more severe weather conditions. Thus, such a buoy and derivative designs have great potential for calibrating altimetric experiments, and for oceanographic and geodetic mapping experiments.