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Nonlin. Processes Geophys., 14, 777-788, 2007
www.nonlin-processes-geophys.net/14/777/2007/
doi:10.5194/npg-14-777-2007
© Author(s) 2007. This work is licensed
under a Creative Commons License.


Efficient estimation of time-mean states of ocean models using 4D-Var and implicit time-stepping

A. D. Terwisscha van Scheltinga and H. A. Dijkstra
Institute for Marine and Atmospheric research Utrecht, Department of Physics and Astronomy, Utrecht University, Princetonplein 5, 3584 CC, Utrecht, The Netherlands

Abstract. We propose an efficient method for estimating a time-mean state of an ocean model subject to given observations using implicit time-stepping. The new method uses (i) an implicit implementation of the 4D-Var method to fit the model trajectory to the observations, and (ii) a pre-processor which applies a multi-channel singular spectrum analysis to enhance the signal-to-noise ratio of the observational data and to filter out the high frequency variability. This approach enables one to estimate the time-mean model state using larger time-steps than is possible with an explicit model. The performance of the method is presented for two test cases within a barotropic quasi-geostrophic nonlinear model of the wind-driven double-gyre ocean circulation. The method turns out to be accurate and, in comparison with the time-mean state computed with an explicit version of the model, relatively cheap in computational cost.

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Citation: Terwisscha van Scheltinga, A. D. and Dijkstra, H. A.: Efficient estimation of time-mean states of ocean models using 4D-Var and implicit time-stepping, Nonlin. Processes Geophys., 14, 777-788, doi:10.5194/npg-14-777-2007, 2007.   Bibtex   EndNote   Reference Manager    XML
 

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