The ocean surface currents are reconstructed from the satellite remote sensing data containing altimeter-derived sea surface height and QuikSCAT satellite-derived wind data. Based on the method proposed by Lagerloef, a global weekly 0.5°×0.5°ocean surface current product was obtained over the period 2000 - 2008 by combining the geostrophic currents estimated from sea surface height with Ekman current estimated from the wind stress. Particularly, weight functions were introduced when calculating the Ekman currents to eliminate the discontinuity near 25°S and 25°N. These satellite-derived currents have been compared with TAO current meter and the SCUD product, respectively. The comparison showed that satellite-derived currents not only could capture the characteristics of ocean surface currents but also had high accuracy and reliability. The result showed that this innovatory method was effective.
