This paper presents the results of a test which used the Global Positioning System (GPS) to precisely determine relative sea height. The test was performed in May 1994 over two hundred miles from the U.S. mainland and east of the Gulf Stream. The procedure described uses Remondi's kinematic On-The-Fly (OTF) GPS measurement processing to provide precise relative heights between two buoys approximately 10km apart and has the capability to compute precise relative position of the two buoys even though both platforms are moving. The height difference, which is with respect to the World Geodetic System (WGS84) ellipsoidal model, can be used to monitor the real-time differential wave height motion. Averaging the height difference can produce, with oceanographic corrections, the slope of the geoid. Alternately, real-time differntial wave height motion from a grid of such buoys can possibly be used for detection of unusual events.
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