Development of the Four-Dimensional Local Ensemble Transform Kalman Filter (4D-LETKF) for Coastal Oceans

Kayo Ide (1), James C. McWilliams (1), Zhijin Li (2), Yi Chao (2), Eugenia Kalnay (3), Istvan Szunyog (3)

(1) University of California, Los Angeles
(2) Jet Propulsion Laboratory
(3) University of Maryland


A four-dimensional (4D) Local Ensemble Transform Kalman Filter (LETKF) system is being developed for the estimation and forecast of the coastal oceans using the Regional Ocean Modeling System. We present the methodology for the data assimilation system with the feature-tracking capabilities for the mesoscale eddies and the Lagrangian analysis system that runs in parallel with the data assimilation system.