The use of data assimilation in coupled hydrodynamic, ecological and bio-geo-chemical models of the ocean

The use of data assimilation in coupled hydrodynamic, ecological and bio-geo-chemical models of the ocean

The International Liège Colloquium on Ocean Dynamics is organized annually. The topic differs from year to year in an attempt to address, as much as possible, recent problems and incentive new subjects in oceanography.

Assembling a group of active and eminent scientists from various countries and often different disciplines, the Colloquia provide a forum for discussion and foster a mutually beneficial exchange of information opening on to a survey of recent discoveries, essential mechanisms, impelling question marks and valuable recommendations for future research.

The objective of the 2001 Colloquium was to evaluate the progress of data assimilation methods in marine science and, in particular, in coupled hydrodynamic, ecological and bio-geo-chemical models of the ocean.

The past decades have seen important advances in the understanding and modelling of key processes of the ocean circulation and bio-geo-chemical cycles. The increasing capabilities of data and models, and their combination, are allowing the study of multidisciplinary interactions that occur dynamically, in multiple ways, on multiscales and with feedbacks.

The capacity of dynamical models to simulate interdisciplinary ocean processes over specific space–time windows and thus forecast their evolution over predictable time scales is also conditioned upon the availability of relevant observations to: initialise and continually update the physical and bio-geo-chemical sectors of the ocean state; provide relevant atmospheric and boundary forcing; calibrate the parameterisations of sub-grid scale processes, growth rates and reaction rates; construct interdisciplinary and multiscale correlation and feature models; identify and estimate the main sources of errors in the models; control or correct for mis-represented or neglected processes.