Open AccessOceans and ocean models as seen by current meters
Author(s) -
Holloway Greg,
Nguyen An,
Wang Zeliang
Publication year - 2011
Publication title -
journal of geophysical research: oceans
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.67
H-Index - 298
eISSN - 2156-2202
pISSN - 0148-0227
DOI - 10.1029/2011jc007044
Subject(s) - eddy , current meter , ocean current , climatology , current (fluid) , grid , latitude , parameterized complexity , meteorology , environmental science , data assimilation , geology , oceanography , geodesy , computer science , geography , algorithm , turbulence
From a collection at 18,588 current meter locations spanning 12,825 observation years, we examine ocean circulation in terms of topostrophy. We affirm previous indications of strongly positive topostrophy toward higher latitudes, and we consider variation with depth. We explore use of the current meter data set for evaluating models skills. This is illustrated from two models applied to Arctic Ocean circulation: (1) examining the influence of successive grid refinement in a high‐resolution eddy‐active model and (2) assessing skill in a coarse‐resolution noneddying model for which effects of unresolved eddies are parameterized. We see that finer‐grid eddy‐active models achieve higher topostrophy and improved skill. We find that a coarse‐grid noneddying model can be improved by parameterization.