Sensitivity Analysis of SST along the New Jersey coast with ROMS Adjoint

Weifeng (Gordon) Zhang, John Wilkin, Julia Levin

Institute of Marine and Coastal Science, Rutgers University


As a prelude to data assimilation work in the New York Bight and New Jersey coast area, the ROMS Adjoint Sensitivity model is used to examine transport pathways and ocean dynamics in this region.

The along-shelf flow on the New Jersey coast is affected by local winds and buoyancy forcing associated with the Hudson River plume. Circulation in this region is being monitored intensively by the New Jersey Shelf Observing System, and modeled with ROMS. We are using the ROMS Adjoint model to re-examine our understanding of circulation in this area based on forward simulations and observations, and also to improve the simulation by combining numerical model and measurement data together.

Here we test the newly available ROMS Adjoint model. The adjoint sensitivity of the sea surface temperature in a near coast region against different state variables, such temperature itself, salinity, wind stress, and surface net heat flux is examined. Different idealized wind forcing cases are considered. The adjoint results concur with expected qualitative features of the dynamics in this area, but add spatial and temporal detail, and quantitative information on the relative magnitude of SST anomaly dependence on different state variables and forcing terms.