Impact of Data Assimilation And Resolution On Modeling The Gulf Stream Pathway

摘要

In this paper, we study, in detail, one important aspect of our ongoing work on global ocean prediction. Modeling the behavior of western boundary currents, like the Gulf Stream, has been a long-standing issue. Recent modeling results suggest that the abyssal currents play an important role in determining the pathway of the Gulf Stream. The present-generation ocean prediction model fails to adequately reproduce the Gulf Stream pathway, and does not generate a vigorous abyssal circulation. Here we use twin simulations, at different horizontal resolutions and with and without data assimilation, to study their effects on modeling the observed Gulf Stream pathway. Increasing the resolution of the model improves the strength of the abyssal circulation, but still fails to predict the Gulf Stream pathway.