scholarly journals Contribution of a constellation of two Wide-Swath Altimetry Missions to Global Ocean Analysis and Forecasting

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mounir Benkiran ◽  
Pierre-Yves Le Traon ◽  
Gérald Dibarboure

Abstract. Swath altimetry is likely to revolutionize our ability to monitor and forecast ocean dynamics. To meet the requirements of the EU Copernicus Marine Service, a constellation of two wide-swath altimeters is envisioned for the long-term (post-2030) evolution of the Copernicus Sentinel 3 topography mission. A series of Observing System Simulation Experiments is carried out to quantify the expected performances. The OSSEs use a state-of-the-art high resolution (1/12°) global ocean data assimilation system similar to the one used operationally by the Copernicus Marine Service. Flying a constellation of two wide-swath altimeters will provide a major improvement of our capabilities to monitor and forecast the oceans. Compared to the present situation with 3 nadir altimeters flying simultaneously, the Sea Surface Height analysis and 7-day forecast error will be globally reduced by about 50 %. With two wide-swath altimeters, the quality of Sea Surface Height 7-day forecasts is equivalent to the quality of SSH analysis errors from three nadir altimeters. Our understanding of ocean currents is also greatly improved (30 % improvements at the surface and 50 % at 300 m depth). The resolution capabilities will be drastically improved and will be closer to 100 km wavelength compared to about 250 km today. Flying a constellation of two wide-swath altimeters thus looks to be a very promising solution for the long-term evolution of the Sentinel 3 constellation and the Copernicus Marine Service.

2007 ◽  
Vol 24 (10) ◽  
pp. 1773-1784 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ian J. Barton

Abstract During 30 days in May and June 2003, the R/V Southern Surveyor was operating in the Gulf of Carpentaria, northern Australia. Measurements of sea surface temperature (SST) were made with an accurate single-channel infrared radiometer as well as with the ship’s thermosalinograph. These ship-based measurements have been used to assess the quality of the SST derived from nine satellite-borne instruments. The satellite dataset compiled during this period also allows the intercomparison of satellite-derived SST fields in areas not covered by the ship’s track. An assessment of the SST quality from each satellite instrument is presented, and suggestions for blending ground and satellite measurements into a single product are made. These suggestions are directly applicable to the international Global Ocean Data Assimilation Experiment (GODAE) High Resolution SST Pilot Project (GHRSST-PP) that is currently developing an operational system to provide 6-hourly global fields of SST at a spatial resolution close to 10 km. The paper demonstrates how the Diagnostic Datasets (DDSs) and Matchup Database (MDB) of the GHRSST-PP can be used to monitor the quality of individual and blended SST datasets. Recommendations for future satellite missions that are critical to the long-term generation of accurate blended SST datasets are included.


2017 ◽  
Vol 30 (22) ◽  
pp. 9195-9211 ◽  
Author(s):  
John T. Fasullo ◽  
Peter R. Gent

Abstract An accurate diagnosis of ocean heat content (OHC) is essential for interpreting climate variability and change, as evidenced for example by the broad range of hypotheses that exists for explaining the recent hiatus in global mean surface warming. Potential insights are explored here by examining relationships between OHC and sea surface height (SSH) in observations and two recently available large ensembles of climate model simulations from the mid-twentieth century to 2100. It is found that in decadal-length observations and a model control simulation with constant forcing, strong ties between OHC and SSH exist, with little temporal or spatial complexity. Agreement is particularly strong on monthly to interannual time scales. In contrast, in forced transient warming simulations, important dependencies in the relationship exist as a function of region and time scale. Near Antarctica, low-frequency SSH variability is driven mainly by changes in the circumpolar current associated with intensified surface winds, leading to correlations between OHC and SSH that are weak and sometimes negative. In subtropical regions, and near other coastal boundaries, negative correlations are also evident on long time scales and are associated with the accumulated effects of changes in the water cycle and ocean dynamics that underlie complexity in the OHC relationship to SSH. Low-frequency variability in observations is found to exhibit similar negative correlations. Combined with altimeter data, these results provide evidence that SSH increases in the Indian and western Pacific Oceans during the hiatus are suggestive of substantial OHC increases. Methods for developing the applicability of altimetry as a constraint on OHC more generally are also discussed.


Ocean Science ◽  
2009 ◽  
Vol 5 (4) ◽  
pp. 403-419 ◽  
Author(s):  
C. Skandrani ◽  
J.-M. Brankart ◽  
N. Ferry ◽  
J. Verron ◽  
P. Brasseur ◽  
...  

Abstract. In the context of stand alone ocean models, the atmospheric forcing is generally computed using atmospheric parameters that are derived from atmospheric reanalysis data and/or satellite products. With such a forcing, the sea surface temperature that is simulated by the ocean model is usually significantly less accurate than the synoptic maps that can be obtained from the satellite observations. This not only penalizes the realism of the ocean long-term simulations, but also the accuracy of the reanalyses or the usefulness of the short-term operational forecasts (which are key GODAE and MERSEA objectives). In order to improve the situation, partly resulting from inaccuracies in the atmospheric forcing parameters, the purpose of this paper is to investigate a way of further adjusting the state of the atmosphere (within appropriate error bars), so that an explicit ocean model can produce a sea surface temperature that better fits the available observations. This is done by performing idealized assimilation experiments in which Mercator-Ocean reanalysis data are considered as a reference simulation describing the true state of the ocean. Synthetic observation datasets for sea surface temperature and salinity are extracted from the reanalysis to be assimilated in a low resolution global ocean model. The results of these experiments show that it is possible to compute piecewise constant parameter corrections, with predefined amplitude limitations, so that long-term free model simulations become much closer to the reanalysis data, with misfit variance typically divided by a factor 3. These results are obtained by applying a Monte Carlo method to simulate the joint parameter/state prior probability distribution. A truncated Gaussian assumption is used to avoid the most extreme and non-physical parameter corrections. The general lesson of our experiments is indeed that a careful specification of the prior information on the parameters and on their associated uncertainties is a key element in the computation of realistic parameter estimates, especially if the system is affected by other potential sources of model errors.


2019 ◽  
Vol 36 (7) ◽  
pp. 1255-1266 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mathieu Hamon ◽  
Eric Greiner ◽  
Pierre-Yves Le Traon ◽  
Elisabeth Remy

AbstractSatellite altimetry is one of the main sources of information used to constrain global ocean analysis and forecasting systems. In addition to in situ vertical temperature and salinity profiles and sea surface temperature (SST) data, sea level anomalies (SLA) from multiple altimeters are assimilated through the knowledge of a surface reference, the mean dynamic topography (MDT). The quality of analyses and forecasts mainly depends on the availability of SLA observations and on the accuracy of the MDT. A series of observing system evaluations (OSEs) were conducted to assess the relative importance of the number of assimilated altimeters and the accuracy of the MDT in a Mercator Ocean global 1/4° ocean data assimilation system. Dedicated tools were used to quantify impacts on analyzed and forecast sea surface height and temperature/salinity in deeper layers. The study shows that a constellation of four altimeters associated with a precise MDT is required to adequately describe and predict upper-ocean circulation in a global 1/4° ocean data assimilation system. Compared to a one-altimeter configuration, a four-altimeter configuration reduces the mean forecast error by about 30%, but the reduction can reach more than 80% in western boundary current (WBC) regions. The use of the most recent MDT updates improves the accuracy of analyses and forecasts to the same extent as assimilating a fourth altimeter.


2020 ◽  
Vol 12 (15) ◽  
pp. 2496
Author(s):  
Lin Ren ◽  
Jingsong Yang ◽  
Xiao Dong ◽  
Yunhua Zhang ◽  
Yongjun Jia

In this study, we performed preliminary comparative evaluation and correction of two-dimensional sea surface height (SSH) data from the Chinese Tiangong-2 Interferometric Imaging Radar Altimeter (InIRA) with the goal of advancing its retrieval. Data from the InIRA were compared with one-dimensional SSH data from the traditional altimeters Jason-2, Saral/AltiKa, and Jason-3. Because the sea state bias (SSB) of distributed InIRA data has not yet been considered, consistency was maintained by neglecting the SSB for the traditional altimeters. The results of the comparisons show that the InIRA captures the same SSH trends as those obtained by traditional altimeters. However, there is a significant deviation between InIRA and traditional altimeter SSHs; consequently, systematic and parametric biases were analyzed. The parametric bias was found to be related to the incidence angles and a significant wave height. Upon correcting the two biases, the standard deviation significantly reduced to 8.1 cm. This value is slightly higher than those of traditional altimeters, which typically have a bias of ~7.0 cm. The results indicate that the InIRA is promising in providing a wide swath of SSH measurements. Moreover, we recommend that the InIRA retrieval algorithm should consider the two biases to improve SSH accuracy.


2020 ◽  
Vol 37 (12) ◽  
pp. 2225-2237
Author(s):  
Yuxin Zhao ◽  
Dequan Yang ◽  
Wei Li ◽  
Chang Liu ◽  
Xiong Deng ◽  
...  

AbstractA spatiotemporal empirical orthogonal function (STEOF) forecast method is proposed and used in medium- to long-term sea surface height anomaly (SSHA) forecast. This method embeds temporal information in empirical orthogonal function spatial patterns, effectively capturing the evolving spatial distribution of variables and avoiding the typical rapid accumulation of forecast errors. The forecast experiments are carried out for SSHA in the South China Sea to evaluate the proposed model. Experimental results demonstrate that the STEOF forecast method consistently outperforms the autoregressive integrated moving average (ARIMA), optimal climatic normal (OCN), and persistence prediction. The model accurately forecasts the intensity and location of ocean eddies, indicating its great potential for practical applications in medium- to long-term ocean forecasts.


2012 ◽  
Vol 2 (3) ◽  
pp. 172-187 ◽  
Author(s):  
J. Reinking ◽  
A. Härting ◽  
L. Bastos

AbstractWith the growing global efforts to estimate the influence of civilization on the climate change it would be desirable to survey sea surface heights (SSH) not only by remote sensing techniques like satellite altimetry or (GNSS) Global Navigation Satellite System reflectometry but also by direct and in-situ measurements in the open ocean. In recent years different groups attempted to determine SSH by ship-based GNSS observations. Due to recent advances in kinematic GNSS (PPP) Precise Point Positioning analysis it is already possible to derive GNSS antenna heights with a quality of a few centimeters. Therefore it is foreseeable that this technique will be used more intensively in the future, with obvious advantages in sea positioning. For the determination of actual SSH from GNSS-derived antenna heights aboard seagoing vessels some essential hydrostatic and hydrodynamic corrections must be considered in addition to ocean dynamics and related corrections. Systematic influences of ship dynamics were intensively analyzed and sophisticated techniques were developed at the Jade University during the last decades to precisely estimate mandatory corrections. In this paper we will describe the required analyses and demonstrate their application by presenting a case study from an experiment on a cruise vessel carried out in March 2011 in the Atlantic Ocean.


2018 ◽  
Vol 128 (2) ◽  
pp. 78-81
Author(s):  
Michał Celejewski ◽  
Jakub Pawlikowski

Abstract Night and Holiday Patient Care is a place providing health services, necessary for securing patients’ medical needs in efficient way and round-the-clock. Units providing such care are located in selected hospitals chosen in connection with the introduction of the hospital network since October 1, 2017. The main aim of the study was comparison of changes that occurred in the area of location and access to Night and Holiday Patient Care after and before establishing hospital network. The analysis was based on a review of the relevant legal acts available on the ISAP website, scientific articles selected from the medical databases, as well as information published on the official websites of governmental agencies and entities offering night and holiday medical services. The introduction of the hospital network has changed the number, localization and availability of places providing Nights and Holiday Patient Care. These changes resulted in, on the one side, faster access to more specialized medical care, on the other, a reduction in the number of places in some cities. These changes require monitoring in terms of access and quality of basic care services during nights and holidays, so that in the long-term it can be determined whether the applied changes were beneficial from the perspective of the patient and the health care system.


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