Assimilation of Satellite Data in a Regional Ocean Model for Generating High-Resolution Ocean Currents

NOAA/NESDIS has demonstrated the feasibility of assimilating geostationary Sea Surface Temperatures (SSTs) (and other data) into an ocean model to generate ocean currents. The regional ocean modeling system (ROMS) with data assimilation was tested and validated for the U.S. East Coast and the Caribbean. A modeling framework has been set up for the NWS/Ocean Prediction Center to generate ocean currents for the US East Coast. This involved performing model runs without data assimilation (hindcast simulations), comparing to available observations, and getting benchmark statistics from these runs. The benchmarks provided a better designed data assimilation system. Methods for quality controlling and reducing the data as needed are developed. Evaluation on the impact of employing various preprocessing techniques and data assimilation parameters on the ocean currents produced by the model will be shown. The ability of the model to produce realistic ocean currents with reduced complexity (e.g. vertical resolution) has been demonstrated, with a view on improving the efficiency for the operational implementation. The methodology, the ocean currents generated, the validation, and the applications to operations will be described in this presentation.