Document Type

Article

Publication Date

6-1-2011

Department

Marine Science

Abstract

A hybrid background error covariance (BEC) model for three-dimensional variational data assimilation of glider data into the Navy Coastal Ocean Model (NCOM) is introduced. Similar to existing atmospheric hybrid BEC models, the proposed model combines low-rank ensemble covariances B(m) with the heuristic Gaussian-shaped covariances B(0) to estimate forecast error statistics. The distinctive features of the proposed BEC model are the following: (i) formulation in terms of inverse error covariances, (ii) adaptive determination of the rank m of B(m) with information criterion based on the innovation error statistics, (iii) restriction of the heuristic covariance operator B(0) to the null space of B(m), and (iv) definition of the BEC magnitudes through separate analyses of the innovation error statistics in the state space and the null space of B(0). The BEC model is validated by assimilation experiments with simulated and real data obtained during a glider survey of the Monterey Bay in August 2003. It is shown that the proposed hybrid scheme substantially improves the forecast skill of the heuristic covariance model.

Comments

© Copyright 2011 American Meteorological Society (AMS). Permission to use figures, tables, and brief excerpts from this work in scientific and educational works is hereby granted provided that the source is acknowledged. Any use of material in this work that is determined to be “fair use” under Section 107 of the U.S. Copyright Act or that satisfies the conditions specified in Section 108 of the U.S. Copyright Act (17 USC §108) does not require the AMS’s permission. Republication, systematic reproduction, posting in electronic form, such as on a website or in a searchable database, or other uses of this material, except as exempted by the above statement, requires written permission or a license from the AMS. All AMS journals and monograph publications are registered with the Copyright Clearance Center (http://www.copyright.com). Questions about permission to use materials for which AMS holds the copyright can also be directed to the AMS Permissions Officer at permissions@ametsoc.org. Additional details are provided in the AMS Copyright Policy statement, available on the AMS website (http://www.ametsoc.org/CopyrightInformation).

Publisher Version

Publication Title

Monthly Weather Review

Volume

139

Issue

6

First Page

1879

Last Page

1890

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