Abstract
Abstract. BRAN2020 (2020 version of the Bluelink ReANalysis) is an ocean reanalysis that combines observations with an eddy-resolving, near-global ocean general circulation model to produce a four-dimensional estimate of the ocean state. The data assimilation system employed is ensemble optimal interpolation, implemented with a new multiscale approach that constrains the broad-scale ocean properties and the mesoscale circulation in two steps. There is a separation in the scales that are corrected in the two steps: the high-resolution step corrects the mesoscale dynamics in the same way as previous versions of BRAN, while the extra coarse step is effective at correcting biases that develop at large scales. The reanalysis currently spans January 1993 to December 2019 and assimilates observations of in situ temperature and salinity, as well as of satellite sea-level anomaly and sea surface temperature. BRAN2020 is planned to be updated to within months of real time after this initial release, until an updated version of BRAN is available. Reanalysed fields from BRAN2020 generally show much closer agreement to observations than all previous versions with misfits between reanalysed and observed fields reduced by over 30 % for some variables, for subsurface temperature and salinity in particular. The BRAN2020 dataset is comprised of daily averaged fields of temperature, salinity, velocity, mixed-layer depth and sea level. Reanalysed fields realistically represent all of the major current systems within 75∘ S and 75∘ N, excluding processes relating to sea ice but including boundary currents, equatorial circulation, Southern Ocean variability and mesoscale eddies. BRAN2020 is publicly available at https://doi.org/10.25914/6009627c7af03 (Chamberlain et al., 2021b) and is intended for use by the research community.
Highlights
An ocean reanalysis combines ocean observations with a model to produce gridded estimates of the ocean state
The second difference is the assimilation of a larger observational dataset that includes observations from marine mammals, moorings and ship-borne surveys that were not assimilated into previous versions of BRAN
Forcing fields are masked for sea ice extent from the atmospheric reanalysis to avoid unrealistic surface fluxes that would result from bulk formulas with open water exposed to cold winter conditions at high latitudes
Summary
An ocean reanalysis combines ocean observations with a model to produce gridded estimates of the ocean state. The dataset presented here is the 2020 version of the Bluelink ReANalysis (BRAN2020; 2020 refers to the year in which the configuration was finalised). There are two main differences between BRAN2020 and all previous versions of reanalyses in this series. Multiscale data assimilation has been applied to regional- and basin-scale ocean models (Li et al, 2015; Carrier et al, 2019; Tissier et al, 2019), which see similar improvements in overall performance. The second difference is the assimilation of a larger observational dataset that includes observations from marine mammals, moorings and ship-borne surveys that were not assimilated into previous versions of BRAN.
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