Data Assimilation Methodology And Validation In Ocean Model PDF Download

This research seeks to develop a data-assimilating capability for HYCOM, the hybrid-coordinate version of the University of Miami's Isopycnic Coordinate Ocean Model. The objectives of the research are as follows: (1) to develop a methodology for assimilating temperature and salinity profiles from XBT, CTD, and ARGO float data that accommodates the peculiarities of HYCOM's hybrid vertical coordinates, allowing density to be corrected at fixed pressure levels where the coordinate is pressure-like, allowing interface pressures to be corrected when the coordinate is density-like, and allowing both to be corrected in the transition zone; (2) to estimate salinity profiles for XBT data so that density can be estimated for determining the nature of HYCOM's hybrid layers; (3) to compare the model state to observations and infer error statistics and influence functions; and (4) to give an evolving view of the ocean over the recent past. Temperature and salinity profiles will be used to estimate density profiles from which data for layer-interface pressures and layer potential-densities can be obtained. At first, error statistics, which govern the nature of the data-based corrections to the model state, are to be postulated so that assimilation codes can be made functional; later, they are to be based on model-data comparisons. The method is to be sufficiently flexible to allow for incorporation of other types of data, in particular those from satellite-based observations.