Adjoint sensitivity studies in the Philippine archipelago region

Julia Levin, Hernan Arango, Enrique Curchitser and Bin Zhang
(Institute of Marine and Coastal Sciences, Rutgers University, USA)

Philippine archipelago ROMS model has been set up to study meso- and submesoscale processes in an area with complex topography and bathymetry. Generation dynamics and predictability of meso- and submesoscale eddies near straits is driven both by local and remote forcing. To understand relative importance of these mechanisms, optimal perturbation and adjoints sensitivity studies have been performed.

Optimal perturbation analysis has been done to understand the limit of tangent linear approximation. Several different metrics have been defined in the adjoint sensitivity studies to quantify the influence of wind forcing, surface fresh water and heat fluxes, bathymetry and wave dynamics on the processes in the straits. Understanding these theoretical issues is important for planning observational strategies for data assimilation.