Developing assimilation of TSCV data for ESA project

WS-1: Developing assimilation of TSCV data:

Idealised observation experiments and estimation of velocity forecast error covariances

This A-TSCV study, funded by ESA, is focused on the design, implementation and reporting of an Observing System Evaluation of satellite Doppler-derived waves and TSCV using synthetic waves and TSCV measurements (e.g. from the SKIM L2 SKIMulator system).

The ocean total surface current velocity (TSCV) is the Lagrangian mean velocity at the instantaneous sea surface (Marié et al., 2020). Accurate forecasting of the ocean TSCV is important for applications such as search and rescue, tracking marine plastic and for coupled ocean/atmosphere/sea-ice/wave forecasting. Direct measurements of the TSCV are currently not available with global coverage. Various satellite missions are being proposed to measure TSCV globally such as SKIM (Ardhuin et al., 2019) and WaCM (Rodriguez et al., 2019). These satellite missions should provide new opportunities for assimilation of velocities into global forecasting systems in the future.

FIND OUT MORE