Impact of Satellite Surface Velocity Observations in the NCOM Analysis-Forecasting System

Global satellite missions with the capability to measure ocean surface currents are continually being proposed. This new observation type is expected to significantly improve ocean model analysis and forecast skill. The potential impact of assimilating sea surface currents from the proposed wide-swath Ocean Dynamics and Surface Exchange with the Atmosphere (ODYSEA) mission is investigated in this study. An Observing System Simulation Experiment (OSSE) is set up with a 1 km Navy Coastal Ocean Model (NCOM) analysis-forecasting system in the Gulf of America domain over a 4-month time period. When compared to an experiment with only the standard data streams of temperature, salinity, and sea surface height anomaly observations from in situ and satellite platforms assimilated, the inclusion of ODYSEA-like sea surface current observations leads to a 13% and 17% reduction in the domain and time averaged root mean squared error (RMSE) for surface u and v components, respectively, as well as an improvement in the current velocity throughout the upper water column. The assimilation of the sea surface current observations also leads to an improvement in the model sea surface height, although there is a negligible to slight degradation in the temperature and salinity at depth, which is likely due to the explicit geostrophic assumption made within the velocity assimilation methodology.