GOCE quasigeoid performance for Norway

•Gravity fields based on GOCE data exhibit smaller commission errors below certain wavelengths than the Earth Gravity Model 2008 over mainland Norway.•The implementation of GOCE gravity fields improve the quasigeoid on mainland Norway on spatial scales larger than 80 km.•The implementation of GOCE gravity fields does not improve the Norwegian height system in a direct way.

We have compared the EGM08/GOCE quasigeoid with the height anomalies of a precise GPS/levelling network in the south of Norway where the GOCE ground tracks are dense and the gravitational signal has been described as rough. It was found that the inclusion of the GOCE gravity potential can improve the quasigeoid fit with the GPS/levelling network by 1.3 cm, and that this improvement takes place on spatial scales larger than 80 km. We therefore expect that GOCE will improve our knowledge of the marine geoid. It is argued that the obtained results cannot be used in a direct way to increase the precision of the Norwegian height system in general due to the short distances between the network points.