The global mean sea surface model WHU2013

The mean sea surface （MSS） model is an important reference for the study of charting datum and sea level change. A global MSS model named WHU2013, with 2′ × 2′ spatial resolution between 80° S and 84°N, is established in this paper by combining nearly 20 years of multi-satellite altimetric data that include Topex/Poseidon （T/P）, Jason-1, Jason-2, ERS-2, ENVISAT and GFO Exact Repeat Mission （ERM） data, ERS-1/168, Jason-1/C geodetic mission data and Cryosat-2 low resolution mode （LRM） data. All the ERM data are adjusted by the collinear method to achieve the mean along-track sea surface height （SSH）, and the combined dataset of T/P, Jason-1 and Jason-2 from 1993 to 2012 after collinear adjustment is used as the reference data. The sea level variations in the non-ERM data （geodetic mission data and LRM data） are mainly investigated, and a combined method is proposed to correct the sea level variations between 66°S and 66°N by along-track sea level variation time series and beyond 66°S or 66°N by seasonal sea level variations. In the crossover adjustment between multi-altimetric data, a stepwise method is used to solve the problem of inconsistency in the reference data between the high and low latitude regions. The proposed model is compared with the CNES-CLS2011 and DTU13 MSS models, and the standard derivation （STD） of the differences between the models is about S cm between 80°S and 84°N, less than 3 cm between 66°S and 66°N, and less than 4 cm in the China Sea and its adjacent sea. Furthermore, the three models exhibit a good agreement in the SSH differences and the along-track gradient of SSH following comparisons with satellite altimetry data.