Including a new data stream in the BLUElink Ocean Data Assimilation System

Abstract

A satellite-derived sea-surface temperature (SST) data stream has been recently added to the BLUElink Ocean Data Assimilation System (BODAS) with the purpose of increasing its robustness. This paper presents the new data-set as well as the pre-existing data stream. We also assess the impact of their assimilation through two sets of analyses that make use of each data-set separately, and a third that assimilates a combination of both. The new data stream brings in higher accuracy and resolution which can constrain closer to the coast. Results show an improvement of the analysis over the background states in all cases. Combining the two data streams brings analyses closer to buoy observations than assimilation of the data streams separately.