Understanding and forecasting the evolution of geophysical fluids is a major scientific and societal challenge. Forecasting algorithms should take into account all the available informations on the considered dynamical system. The Variational Data Assimilation (VDA) technique combines in a consistent way all these informations in an Optimality System in order to reconstruct the model inputs. VDA is currently used by the major meteorological centres. During the last two decades about thirty satellites were launched to improve the knowledge of the atmosphere and of the oceans. They continuously provide a huge amount of data that are still underused by numerical forecast systems. In particular, the dynamical evolution of some meteorological or oceanic features (such as eddies, fronts,. . .) that a human vision may easily detect is not optimally taken into account in realistic applications of VDA. Image Assimilation in VDA framework can be performed using pseudo-observation techniques : they provide some apparent velocity fields which are assimilated as classical observations. These measurements are obtained by some external procedures which are decoupled with the considered dynamical system. In this paper, we suggest a more consistent approach which directly incorporates image sequences into the Optimality System.

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An application of the Spatial Ecosystem And POpulation DYnamics Model (SEAPODYM) is developed for the North Atlantic albacore (Thunnus alalunga) population. We investigate the spatiotemporal dynamics of this species, distinguishing the influences of environment and international fishing. Incorporating historical data (1960–2008), a maximum likelihood approach allows the estimation of biological parameters (thermal and oxygen tolerance) and stock spatial distribution varying over time. Juvenile albacore are predicted in warm surface waters, whereas adults inhabit cooler and deeper waters. Positive correlations between juveniles and tropical large-scale climate indices highlight the importance of environmental drivers when estimating stock recruitment biology and spatiotemporal distribution. A methodology is proposed to use SEAPODYM outputs to estimate stock abundance and maximum sustainable yield (MSY). MSY is computed taking into account the spatial dynamics of the species and the environmental variability and is based on a mechanistic modelling of larval recruitment. MSY estimates converge towards an asymptotic value (15 997 t) of the same magnitude than standard stock assessment estimates conducted for the international tuna commission. In agreement with all assessment studies, the stock status is estimated from overfished in the 1990s to recovered in the 2000s. Our results show that the stock recovery results both from fishing actions, including total allowable catches established in the 2000s, and from the beginning of a North Atlantic Oscillation warm phase, leading to more favourable recruitment conditions. Following a parsimonious ecosystemic approach, SEAPODYM offers a faithful and spatially dynamic modelling framework that now includes direct tools for spatialized management advice and for distinction between environmental and fishing effects.