3.2.2.5.4. Mean dynamic topography

The Mean Dynamic Topography is the permanent stationary component of the ocean dynamic topography.
This mean circulation is not an immediate product of altimetry data. Those data give more the mean sea surface, which contains the marine geoid plus the sea elevation due to the mean oceanic. So we have to combine altimetric data with others (in-situ, gravimetric satellites...), to precisely determine the geoid, and by subtracting it, compute the mean circulation.

A Mean Dynamic Topography (Rio'05), computed from hydrologic and drifting buoys, used jointly with altimetric measurements and Champ gravimetric satellite data (geoid model Eigen2). This dynamic topography shows all the features of the general circulation. The ocean gyres and associated western boundary current (e.g. Gulf Stream, Kuroshio, Brazil/Malvinas Confluence area) appear clearly on the map; so too does the Antarctic Circumpolar Current.
(Credits CLS)