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My present research is related to the understanding of the ocean general circulation, its large-scale variability, its turbulent eddy component, and its transport properties. These problems are addressed in various ways by using observations and numerical models, either separately or combined through state estimation procedures (data assimilation).
Recent observational studies are primarily based on satellite altimetry. As part of this work, TOPEX/POSEIDON altimetric data were used to study the following aspects of the ocean general circulation:
All those studies were performed on a global scale and thus included the Pacific Ocean.
In a separate study I have compared results from the state-of-the-art global WOCE Parallel Ocean Climate Model (POCM) with altimetric, hydrographic and tide gauge observations. The outcome of such studies is important for the dynamical interpretation of ocean observations and for the improvement of present circulation models in simulating observed circulation properties.
Finally, I have used a numerical circulation model of the Pacific Ocean in combination with TOPEX/POSEIDON data, to obtain an estimate of the North Pacific circulation consistent with the observations. In collaboration with the ATOC project, this effort is presently much expanded to include the global MIT circulation model and to use tomographic data from the Pacific Ocean in combination with global altimetry. Other data such as hydrography of float observations can be incorporated as well. Previous and ongoing work is based on model Green's functions. Efforts are underway to use the adjoint of the MIT model in parallel.
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