Optimization of Influencing Factors in Tidal Current Data Assimilation Modeling in Macro Tidal Estuary, Gyeonggi Bay, South Korea

Abstract

Gu, B.-H.; Woo, S.-B., and Kim, S., 2021. Optimization of influencing factors in tidal current data assimilation modeling in macro tidal estuary, Gyeonggi Bay, South Korea. In: Lee, J.L.; Suh, K.-S.; Lee, B.; Shin, S., and Lee, J. (eds.), Crisis and Integrated Management for Coastal and Marine Safety. Journal of Coastal Research, Special Issue No. 114, pp. 66–70. Coconut Creek (Florida), ISSN 0749-0208. The study investigates the effect of the model prediction accuracy improvement using data assimilation technique in macro-tidal estuary, such as the Gyeonggi Bay (GGB), South Korea. The observation data used in this study is a tidal current measurement from Acoustic Doppler Current Profiler (ADCP) mooring device. GGB is located at the middle west coast of South Korea, and it is semi-closed estuary that has a tidal range over 6.8 m. To take the irregularity of coastline into account, this study utilized the Finite Volume Coastal Ocean Model (FVCOM), which has the flexible advantage of grid resolution by using unstructured triangular grid system. When applying data assimilation into the coastal model, various parameters, such as scaling factors and correlation lengths are needed to be adjusted to find out the best performance. Total 25 cases used in Taylor diagram showed that different influencing factors are required to be optimized at each observation location. It means that parameters in data assimilation depend on the physical dynamic system via complicated geometry. The optimized parameters not only increase by the tidal range but also it is offset by the effect of river discharge. The horizontal influence range of data assimilation with all observed locations becomes even less than the result applying only one location. It is estimated that the phenomena occurred due to strong tidal currents and interference between the range of influence. The sensitivity of data assimilation parameters in tidally dominated coastal area indicates that a systematic way of choosing the most optimized site-specific parameters are required in macro tidal area.