SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR CORRECTING A MODEL-DERIVED VERTICAL STRUCTURE OF OCEAN TEMPERATURE AND OCEAN SALINITY BASED ON SEA SURFACE HEIGHT OBSERVATIONS

摘要

System and method for correcting the vertical structure of the ocean temperature and salinity can enable the use of sea surface height (SSH) measurements to correct ocean forecast models. In the present embodiment, three relations that can be precomputed are exploited: (1) the relation between temperature and salinity throughout a water column, (2) the relation between temperature/salinity and geopotential, and (3) the relation between geopotential and SSH. The relations are stored in a form that allows efficient application through a cross-correlation matrix.

主权项

1. A computer method for correcting a grid of predicted ocean temperature and ocean salinity based on sea surface height observations comprising:
determining historical temperature vertical profiles and historical salinity vertical profiles at various depths from a pre-selected lowest depth to the ocean surface, the historical temperature vertical profiles including temperature values, the historical salinity vertical profiles including salinity values; computing, by a special purpose computer, vertical correlations between the historical temperature values and the historical salinity values between the various depths; computing, by the special purpose computer, temperature standard deviations of temperature values and computing salinity standard deviations of salinity values; determining, by the special purpose computer, significant vertical variability of the temperature vertical profiles and significant vertical variability of the salinity vertical profiles based on an empirical orthogonal function (EOF) analysis; computing, by the special purpose computer, significant vertical variability of specific volume anomaly vertical profiles based on the significant vertical variability of the temperature vertical profiles and the significant vertical variability of the salinity vertical profiles, the specific volume anomaly vertical profiles including specific volume anomaly values; computing, by the special purpose computer, specific volume anomaly standard deviations of specific volume anomaly values from the temperature standard deviations and the salinity standard deviations; computing, by the special purpose computer, significant vertical variability of geopotential vertical profiles based on the significant vertical variability of the specific volume anomaly vertical profiles, the geopotential vertical profiles including geopotential values; computing, by the special purpose computer, geopotential standard deviation of the geopotential values based on the specific volume anomaly standard deviations; modifying, by the special purpose computer, the geopotential values to incorporate sea surface height (SSH) observations at the ocean surface; computing, by the special purpose computer, covariances based on the vertical correlations, the temperature standard deviations, the salinity standard deviations, and the geopotential standard deviations; and correcting, by the special purpose computer, the grid of predicted ocean temperature and predicted ocean salinity based on the covariances and the modified geopotential values.