POSTER: Application of the adjoint MIT ocean general circulation model to global optimization and sensitivity calculations
by
Jochem Marotzke
University of Southampton
Coauthors: Jochem Marotzke (University of Southampton), Detlef Stammer (Scripps Institution of Oceanography), Carl Wunsch (Massachusetts Institute of Technology), Ralf Giering (FastOpt), Kate Q. Zhang (California Institute of Technology), Chris Hill (Massachusetts Institute of Technology), Tong Lee (Jet Propulsion Laboratory)

We have generated the adjoint to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology ocean general circulation model (GCM) using R. Giering's software tool Tangent-Linear and Adjoint Model Compiler (TAMC). The sensitivity of 1993 annual mean heat transport across 29degN in the Atlantic, to the temperature and salinity fields on January 1, 1993, is calculated from a global solution of the GCM. The sensitivities calculated with the adjoint compare excellently to those from a perturbation calculation with the dynamical model. The "kinematic sensitivity" to initial temperature variations is isolated, showing how the latter would influence heat transport if they did not affect the density and hence the flow. Our results suggest a strategy for monitoring the climatically important meridional mass and heat transports in the Atlantic. Ongoing efforts aim at establishing a quasi-operational global ocean state estimation system, using the global model and its adjoint, the continuous oceanographic data stream, and optimization (state estimation) techniques.

http://www.soc.soton.ac.uk/SOES/STAFF/jym/Papers/Nice2000_abs.htm

Date received: March 31, 2000

Copyright © 2000 by the author(s). The author(s) of this document and the organizers of the conference have granted their consent to include this abstract in Atlas Conferences Inc. Document # caev-08.