Operational multivariate ocean data assimilation

Abstract

SUMMARYA fully three-dimensional, multivariate, optimum-interpolation ocean data assimilation system has been developed that produces simultaneous analyses of temperature, salinity, geopotential and vector velocity. The system is run in real-time, and can be executed as a stand-alone analysis or cycled with an ocean forecast model in a sequential incremental update cycle. Additional capabilities have been built into the system, including flow-dependent background-error correlations and background-error variances that vary in space and evolve from one analysis cycle to the next. The ocean data types assimilated include: remotely sensed sea surface temperature, sea surface height, and sea-ice concentration; plus in situ surface and sub-surface observations of temperature, salinity, and currents from a variety of sources, such as ships, buoys, expendable bathythermographs, conductivity-temperature-depth sensors, and profiling floats. An ocean data quality-control system is fully integrated with the multivariate analysis, and includes feedback of forecast fields and prediction errors in the quality control of new observations. The system is operational at the US Navy oceanographic production centres both in global and in regional applications. It is being implemented as the data assimilation component of the Hybrid Coordinate Ocean Model as part of the US contribution to the Global Ocean Data Assimilation Experiment, and in a limited-area ensemble-based forecasting system that will be used in an adaptive sampling, targeted observation application.

Southern hemisphere tropical cyclone intensity forecast methods used at the Joint Typhoon Warning Center, Part II: statistical-dynamical forecasts

“…Consensus-based intensity forecasts are also available to the Australian Bureau of Meteorology in real-time. In the near future, there are also plans to incorporate oceanic heat content information into the SH STIPS model via the method described in Goni et al (1996) and created from the fields available from the Navy coupled ocean data assimilation (Cummings 2005). Testing of this formulation of the model in a consensus-based approach is planned to start during the 2009 tropical cyclone season.…”

Caspian Sea surface circulation variability inferred from satellite altimeter and sea surface temperature

“…The NCODA system uses the multivariate optimum interpolation (MVOI) technique. The detailed documentation of the NCODA system and the interpolation technique can be found in Cummings [2005]. The horizontal correlation length-scale used in the analysis is 50 km.…”

Ocean Thermal Extractable Energy Visualization- Final Technical Report on Award DE-EE0002664. October 28, 2012

“…HYCOM has matured into a community effort, and the simulations to be used in OTEEV are those from the NRL using the Navy Coupled Ocean Data Assimilation (NCODA -see Cummings, 2005) multivariate technique. The assimilation includes use of satellite altimetry data (for sea-surface height) and multi-channel sea-surface temperature and salinity as well as all available in situ temperature and salinity profiles from bathythermograph profiling floats and sea ice concentrations.…”