Ocean Data Assimilation Program
Research team:Dr.Lewis Rothstein,Dr.Roger Lukas(U.Hawai),Dr.Andrew
Bennet(Oregon State Univ.),Dr.Isaac Ginis and Dr.Ray Richardson
We combine our upper ocean modeling program (see description above) with
Lukas' program of development/analyses of synthesized COARE
observational data sets and Bennett's basin-scale tropical ocean data
assimilation program for executing a program of mesoscale ocean data
assimilation for COARE. This is based upon the COARE community's call
for an assimilated upper ocean data set in the IFA that will better
enable hypothesis testing of the fundamental program objectives of the
COARE ocean component; mesoscale ocean assimilation is considered
of the highest priority for the post-IOP analysis phase (COARE Science
Group, 1995). Building directly upon our successful previous COARE and
TOGA research we list two fundamental objectives for this work:
- The production of a dynamically consistent atlas of oceanic
fields during COARE that will be made available to all COARE investigators.
- To then use this ocean atlas to investigate upper ocean physical processes in the warm pool of the western tropical Pacific Ocean.
The first objective is designed to produce a data set capable of
addressing the highest priorities of the COARE ocean program; we shall
calculate upper ocean circulation, temperature and salinity fields
which are simultaneously weighted, least-square best-fits to the
primitive equations of motion, the initial values of the fields, the
lateral and surface boundary values of the fields and the COARE ocean
data set. The best-fits will initially be sought in the IFA domain in
and above the thermocline during the IOP (Nov 1, 1992 - Feb 28,
1993) and eventually extend both to pre- and post-IOP periods when
we have COARE and TOGA TAO observations. These temporal and spatial
constraints pose a computationally manageable 4-d assimilation
problem. The proposed assimilation program enables explicit assessment
of errors in inverse model physics and suggests improvements.
The second objective relates to our plan to then use this assimilated
data set both alone and in comparison with the un-assimilated forward
model and synthesized ocean observational data sets for COARE
process-oriented studies. We will:
- assess the importance of salinity advection within the
thermocline
- assess the influence of the 3-dimensional circulation on
mixed layer evolution
- understand the evolution of energetic submesoscale eddies
during equatorial jet spin-down.
We intend to make the assimilated ocean data sets available
to our COARE colleagues.
To Air-Sea interactions in the Tropics