Presenter: PENG ZHAN (KAUST)

Description:
Continuous data assimilation (CDA) is implemented for the first time for efficient dynamical downscaling of a realistic oceanic MIT general circulation model (MITgcm). The model is configured for the Arabian Sea, the Red Sea, and the Arabian Gulf with a horizontal resolution of about 2 km. A comparison of the performance of CDA with the standard grid nudging technique for representing large- and small-scale features in the downscaled fields is presented and analyzed. CDA maintains the large-scale features from the coarser-resolution data and allows the finer-resolution MITgcm to develop small-scale dynamics. CDA can be conveniently applied to oceanic models usually featuring irregular domains. The overall results suggest that CDA provides an efficient new approach for dynamical downscaling by maintaining a better balance between global reanalysis and the regional downscaled fields.