Satellite altimetry observations, including the upcoming Surface Water and Ocean Topography mission, provide snapshots of the global sea surface high anomaly field. The common practice in analyzing these surface elevation data is to convert them into surface velocity based on the geostrophic approximation. With increasing horizontal resolution in satellite observations, sea surface elevation data will contain many dynamical signals other than the geostrophic velocity. A new physical quantity, the available surface potential energy, is conceptually introduced in this study defined as the density multiplied by half of the squared deviation from the local mean reference surface elevation. This gravitational potential energy is an intrinsic property of the sea surface height field and it is an important component of ocean circulation energetics, especially near the sea surface. In connection with other energetic terms, this new variable may help us better understand the dynamics of oceanic circulation, in particular the processes in connection with the free surface data collected through satellite altimetry. The preliminary application of this concept to the numerically generated monthly mean Global Ocean Data Assimilation System data and Archiving, Validation, and Interpretation of Satellite Oceanographic altimeter data shows that the available surface potential energy is potentially linked to other dynamic variables, such as the total kinetic energy, eddy kinetic energy and available potential energy.