Investigation of sea level around the island of gavdos from ten years of TOPEX/POSEIDON satellite altimetry data

The European Union project 'GAVDOS' (MERTIKAS & PAVLIS, 1999) has been designed to lead to the establishment of a calibration and sea level monitoring site for the JASON-1 and ENVISAT satellites as well as the GLObal Sea level monitoring System (GLOSS). Within the context of this project, nearly ten years of TOPEX/POSEIDON satellite altimetry data (cycle 1 to 364) from the vicinity of the Gavdos Island (Crete, Greece) have been processed and analysed. The results presented here are from the application of a method that incorporates the calculation of a corrected sea surface height from the altimetry data, along-track and cross-track data interpolation because of orbital drift, near coastal error filtering, and the use of a new geoid for the area. This method was applied in order to create ten year time series of sea level and associated parameters for the area around Gavdos island. The results reveal the pattern of sea level and local seasonal cycle around Gavdos over the last ten years.