Mean Dynamic Topography, Mean Sea Surface, Mean Sea Level or mean profile??
There are several means used in altimetry processing or altimetry-based studies. The MSS (Mean Sea Surface) is a mean of several years of altimetry data, eventually using several satellites). It is a reference surface (thus you have values on a lon/lat grid). The MDT (Mean Dynamic Topography) is the previous surface minus the geoid. It is the ocean topography due to the mean currents. It is also a reference surface. The Mean profile is the mean of an altimeter measurements along the satellite’s tracks. It can be used as reference for computing SLA for the same satellite. It is an along-track data (not distributed) The ‘), ”)” class=”glossary”>MSL (Mean Sea Level) is a trend (a number of mm/year), often given with respect to time as a curve.
