ASSIMILATION OF SATELLITE TOTAL SURFACE CURRENT VELOCITIES IN GLOBAL OCEAN FORECASTING SYSTEMS

Observations of ocean velocities are currently limited and are not routinely assimilated in global operational ocean forecasting systems. This may change with proposed new satellite missions designed to observe ocean surface velocities. The ESA Assimilation of Total Surface Current Velocity (A-TSCV) project will use observing system simulation experiments to investigate the assimilation of total surface current velocities in operational global forecasting systems. Synthetic observations of the standard observing network along with synthetic observations of new satellite total surface current velocities are being generated from a high-resolution nature run. The assimilation of these observations will be tested in the Met Offi ce FOAM and the Mercator Ocean forecasting systems.