Impact of Data Assimilation on ECCO2 Equatorial Undercurrent and North Equatorial Countercurrent in the Pacific Ocean

Abstract

AbstractThe impact of data assimilation on the transports of eastward-flowing Equatorial Undercurrent (EUC) and North Equatorial Countercurrent (NECC) in the Pacific Ocean from 145°E to 95°W during 2004–05 and 2009–11 was assessed. Two Estimating the Circulation and Climate of the Ocean, Phase II (ECCO2), solutions were analyzed: one with data assimilation and one without. Assimilated data included satellite observations of sea surface temperature and ocean surface topography, in which the sampling patterns were approximately uniform over the 5 years, and in situ measurements of subsurface salinity and temperature profiles, in which the sampling patterns varied considerably in space and time throughout the 5 years. Velocity measurements were not assimilated. The impact of data assimilation was considered significant when the difference between the transports computed with and without data assimilation was greater than 5.5 × 106 m3 s−1 (or 5.5 Sv; 1 Sv ≡ 106 m3 s−1) for the EUC and greater than 5.0 Sv for the NECC. In addition, the difference of annual-mean transports computed from 3-day-averaged data was statistically significant at the 95% level. The impact of data assimilation ranged from no impact to very substantial impact when data assimilation increased the EUC transport and decreased the NECC transport. The study’s EUC results had some correspondence with other studies and no simple agreement or disagreement pattern emerged among all studies of the impact of data assimilation. No comparable study of the impact of data assimilation on the NECC has been made.