Assimilating altimetric data to control the tropical instability waves: an observing system simulation experiment study

Abstract

Tropical instability waves (TIWs) are not easily simulated by ocean circulation models primarily because such waves are very sensitive to wind forcing. In this study, we investigate the impact of assimilating sea surface height (SSH) observations on the control of TIWs in an observing system simulation experiment (OSSE) context based on a regional model configuration of the tropical Atlantic. A Kalman filtering method with suitable adaptations is found to be successful when altimetric data are assimilated in conjunction with sea surface temperature and some in situ temperature/salinity profiles. In this rather realistic system, the TIW phase is roughly controlled with a single nadir observing satellite. However, a right correction of the TIW structure and amplitude requires at least two nadir observing satellites or a wide swath observing satellite. The significant impact of orbital parameters is also demonstrated: in particular, the Jason or GFO satellite orbits are found to be more suitable than the ENVISAT orbit. More generally, it is found that as soon as adequate sub-sampling exists (with periods of 5–10 days), the length of the repetitivity cycle of orbits does not have a significant impact.