Mean sea level and sea surface variability of Indonesian waters from Topex/Poseidon

Six years of Topex/Poseidon data has been used to determine and analyze the mean sea level and sea surface variability around the Indonesian waters. The root mean square (rms) distribution of T/P shows that 90% of the values are below 10 cm. The time series show clear annual variability, with the high variation during rainy season and lower in the dry season. Moreover the interannual variability associated with the ENSO reveals and dominates the signal in 1994 and 1997 to 1998 during El Nino years. Based on the sea surface level anomaly (SLA) values some of the current features can be distinguished. However, due to poor spatial resolution of the data, it is still difficult to accurately understand, most of the features over the middle of the Indonesia waters.