Collaborative Research: SODA: A Climate Reanalysis for the Oceans

University Of Maryland, College Park, College Park MD

Investigators

Abstract

0351319/0351804 This collaborative project will explore the application of eddy-permitting sequential data assimilation to ocean reanalysis. The domain is the global ocean, with an emphasis on the upper 1000m where the observational record is more substantial. The time period is the past six decades corresponding to the period of atmospheric reanalyses. The ocean model will be the Parallel Ocean Program model and the data assimilation represents an evolution of the Simple Ocean Data Assimilation sequential estimation approach with an emphasis on including explicit bias-correction. The main goal of the study is to provide a reference climate for the oceans that may be used as a basis for examining other physical, chemical, and biological analysis products, for providing the large-scale context for observation sets, as well as for studies of the ocean's contribution to climate variability. The ocean reanalysis will be used to carry out a kinematic description of variability on seasonal, inter-annual, and decadal timescales including examination of covariations with index time series such as El Nino- Southern Oscillation (ENSO), the Arctic Oscillation (AO), the Pacific Decadal Oscillation (PDO), etc. The reanalysis product will be compared with independent observations in order to learn about the uncertainties in the reanalysis. Finally, a focused examination of low frequency climate variability in the tropical oceans will be preformed. . Broader impacts: The set of reanalysis experiments resulting from this work along with forcing and ocean data sets will be made available to the scientific community at large and offer many opportunities for students and researchers to explore ocean climate variability. Training will be provided to two graduate students.