Identification

Title

A state-space model for ocean drifter motions dominated by inertial oscillations

Abstract

Coincident ocean drifter position and surface wind time series observed on hourly timescales are used to estimate upper ocean dissipation and atmosphere-ocean coupling coefficients in the Labrador Sea. A discrete-process model based on finite differences is used to regress ocean accelerations on ocean velocity estimates but fails because errors in the discrete approximations for the ocean velocities are biased and accumulate over time. Model identification is achieved by fitting a stochastic differential equation model based on classical upper ocean physics to the drifter data via the Kalman filter. Ocean parameters are shown to be nonidentifiable in a direct application to the Labrador Sea data when the known Coriolis parameter is not identified by the model. To address this, the ocean parameters are estimated in an empirical sequence. Data from the Ocean Storms experiment are used to estimate ocean dissipation in isolation from complexities introduced by strong and variable winds. Given a realistic estimate of the ocean dissipation, a second application in the Labrador Sea successfully estimates atmosphere-ocean coupling coefficients and reproduces the Coriolis parameter. Model assessments demonstrate the robustness of the parameter estimates. The model parameter estimates are discussed in comparison with Ekman theory and results from analyses of the global ocean surface drifter data set.

Resource type

document

Resource locator

Unique resource identifier

code

http://n2t.net/ark:/85065/d761114x

codeSpace

Dataset language

eng

Spatial reference system

code identifying the spatial reference system

Classification of spatial data and services

Topic category

geoscientificInformation

Keywords

Keyword set

keyword value

Text

originating controlled vocabulary

title

Resource Type

reference date

date type

publication

effective date

2016-01-01T00:00:00Z

Geographic location

West bounding longitude

East bounding longitude

North bounding latitude

South bounding latitude

Temporal reference

Temporal extent

Begin position

End position

Dataset reference date

date type

publication

effective date

2005-10-14T00:00:00Z

Frequency of update

Quality and validity

Lineage

Conformity

Data format

name of format

version of format

Constraints related to access and use

Constraint set

Use constraints

Limitations on public access

None

Responsible organisations

Responsible party

contact position

OpenSky Support

organisation name

UCAR/NCAR - Library

full postal address

PO Box 3000

Boulder

80307-3000

email address

opensky@ucar.edu

web address

http://opensky.ucar.edu/

name: homepage

responsible party role

pointOfContact

Metadata on metadata

Metadata point of contact