A Statistical Approach to an Ocean Circulation Inverse Problem

• Other Authors: Choi, Seo-eun, 1971- (authoraut), Huffer, Fred W. (professor co-directing dissertation), Speer, Kevin G. (professor co-directing dissertation), Nolder, Craig (outside committee member), Niu, Xufeng (committee member), Wu, Wei (committee member), Department of Statistics (degree granting department), Florida State University (degree granting institution)
• Format: Text
• Language: English
• Published: Florida State University
• Subjects: Statistics; Probabilities; Curl; North Atlantic
• Online Access: http://purl.flvc.org/fsu/fd/FSU_migr_etd-3758; http://fsu.digital.flvc.org/islandora/object/fsu%3A182008/datastream/TN/view/Statistical%20Approach%20to%20an%20Ocean%20Circulation%20Inverse%20Problem.jpg

This dissertation presents, applies, and evaluates a statistical approach to an ocean circulation problem. The objective is to produce a map of ocean velocity in the North Atlantic based on sparse measurements along ship tracks, based on a Bayesian approach with a physical model. The Stommel Gulf Stream model which relates the wind stress curl to the transport stream function is the physical model. A Gibbs sampler is used to extract features from the posterior velocity field. To specify the prior, the equation of the Stommel Gulf Stream model on a two-dimensional grid is used.Comparisons with earlier approaches used by oceanographers are also presented. A Dissertation submitted to the Department of Statistics in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. Summer Semester, 2007. JULY 5, 2007. MCMC, Gibbs Sampler, Gulf Stream Includes bibliographical references. Fred W. Huffer, Professor Co-Directing Dissertation; Kevin G. Speer, Professor Co-Directing Dissertation; Craig Nolder, Outside Committee Member; Xufeng Niu, Committee Member; Wei Wu, Committee Member.