State analysis using the Local Ensemble Transform Kalman Filter (LETKF) and the three-layer circulation structure of the Luzon Strait and the South China Sea Topical Collection on the 5th International Workshop on Modelling the Ocean (IWMO) in Bergen, Norway 17-20 June 2013

Fang Hua Xu, Lie Yauw Oey

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

64 Scopus citations

Abstract

A new circulation model of the western North Pacific Ocean based on the parallelized version of the Princeton Ocean Model and incorporating the Local Ensemble Transform Kalman Filter (LETKF) data assimilation scheme has been developed. The new model assimilates satellite data and is tested for the period January 1 to April 3, 2012 initialized from a 24-year simulation to estimate the ocean state focusing in the South China Sea (SCS). Model results are compared against estimates based on the optimum interpolation (OI) assimilation scheme and are validated against independent Argo float and transport data to assess model skills. LETKF provides improved estimates of the western North Pacific Ocean state including transports through various straits in the SCS. In the Luzon Strait, the model confirms, for the first time, the three-layer transport structure previously deduced in the literature from sparse observations: westward in the upper and lower layers and eastward in the middle layer. This structure is shown to be robust, and the related dynamics are analyzed using the results of a long-term (18 years) unassimilated North Pacific Ocean model. Potential vorticity and mass conservations suggest a basin-wide cyclonic circulation in the upper layer of the SCS (z>-570 m), an anticyclonic circulation in the middle layer (-570 m≥z>-2,000 m), and, in the abyssal basin (<-2,000 m), the circulation is cyclonic in the north and anticyclonic in the south. The cyclone-anticyclone abyssal circulation is confirmed and explained using a deep-layer reduced-gravity model as being caused by overflow over the deep sill of the Luzon Strait, coupled with intense, localized upwelling west of the strait.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)905-923
Number of pages19
JournalOcean Dynamics
Volume64
Issue number6
DOIs
StatePublished - Jun 2014

Keywords

  • Data assimilation
  • Local Ensemble Transform Kalman Filter (LETKF)
  • Ocean modeling
  • Three-layer Luzon Strait transport
  • Three-layer circulation of South China Sea

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