Analysis Systems for the Mesoscale Thermal Variability in the Greenland- Iceland-Norwegian Sea

• Main Authors: Grillaki-Steiert, D., Amoroso, V.
• Other Authors: SACLANT ASW RESEARCH CENTRE LA SPEZIA (ITALY)
• Format: Text
• Language: English
• Published: 1988
• Subjects: Physical and Dynamic Oceanography; *OCEAN MODELS; *UNDERWATER ACOUSTICS; *SOUND TRANSMISSION; SPATIAL DISTRIBUTION; TEMPERATURE; MODELS; VARIATIONS; PROFILES; THERMAL ANALYSIS; INTERPOLATION; HIGH DENSITY; GRAPHICS; ITALY; MATHEMATICS; OCEANS; CLIMATOLOGY; OCEAN ENVIRONMENTS; NORWEGIAN SEA; GREENLAND SEA; OCEANOGRAPHY; EXTRAPOLATION; CONTOURS; DATA BASES; ICELAND; THERMAL PROPERTIES; COMPUTER PROGRAMS; LEVITUS CLIMATOLOGY; GAUSS MARKOV PROCESSES; ACOUSTIC PROPAGATION; GAUSS MARKOV THEOREM; GREENLAND ICELAND NORWEGIAN SEA; MODELLING; THERMAL VARIABILITY; FOREIGN REPORTS; Greenland; Norwegian Sea; Greenland Sea; Iceland
• Online Access: http://www.dtic.mil/docs/citations/ADA199977; http://oai.dtic.mil/oai/oai?&verb=getRecord&metadataPrefix=html&identifier=ADA199977

Mesoscale thermal structure and its spatial variability are very significant for acoustic propagation in the ocean. Therefore ocean thermal analysis procedures are important for the initialisation and verification of environmental and acoustical models. This study involved the implementation of software, and the production, from irregularly-spaced data, of uniformly-gridded temperature fields for use by numerical acoustical and environmental models. The two analyses, considered for the production of temperature fields are: (1) an objective analysis method based on the Gauss-Markov Theorem which makes use of additional information such as climatology (the Levitus climatology has been used in this study), and (2) an interpolation method based on contouring techniques provided by the UNIRAS graphics package. Both methods agree well when there is a high density of data. When the data availability is limited, there is a danger that the objective analysis method can give rise to spurious gradients in going from the regime dominated by data to that dominated by climatology. Whether this is less desirable than a field based on extrapolation from a few observational data points depends on the application. Original contains color plates: All DTIC and NTIS reproductions will be in black and white.