Blended sea level anomaly fields with enhanced coastal coverage along the U.S. West Coast

We form a new ‘blended’ data set of sea level anomaly (SLA) fields by combining gridded daily fields derived from altimeter data with coastal tide gauge data. Within approximately 55–70 km of the coast, the altimeter data are discarded and replaced by a linear interpolation between the tide gauge and remaining offshore altimeter data. To create a common reference height for altimeter and tide gauge data, a 20-year mean is subtracted from each time series (from each tide gauge and altimeter grid point) before combining the data sets to form a blended mean sea level anomaly (SLA) data set. Daily mean fields are produced for the 22-year period 1 January 1993–31 December 2014. The primary validation compares geostrophic velocities calculated from the height fields and velocities measured at four moorings covering the north-south range of the new data set. The blended data set improves the alongshore (meridional) component of the currents, indicating an improvement in the cross-shelf gradient of the mean SLA data set.