Quantifying the Value of Observations in Ocean State Estimation

Data assimilation is widely recognized as a powerful tool for combining observations of the ocean with numerical models to yield an optimal estimate of the ocean circulation. During the last decade, a plethora of new observing platforms have been used to provide important information about the state of the ocean. This talk will present some practical methods for quantifying the information content and impact of ocean observations from different platforms on different aspects of the ocean circulation. Examples will be presented from ROMS configured for the California Current System using ROMS 4D-Var.