A Kalman Filter Analysis of Sea Level Height in the Tropical Pacific

Abstract

Coll. Oceanogr., Oregon State Univ., Corvallis, OR 97331, USA J (Journal-Article) M (Marine) The Kalman filter is implemented and tested for a simple model of sea level anomalies in the tropical Pacific, using tide gauge data from six selected island stations to update the model. The error model is a simple covariance function. The calibrated error model is used in a Kalman filtering scheme to generate monthly sea level height anomaly maps for the tropical Pacific. The filtered maps, i.e., those which result from data assimilation, exhibit fine structure that is absent from the unfiltered model output, even in regions removed from the data insertion points. Error estimates, an important byproduct of the scheme, suggest that the filter reduces the error in the equatorial wave guide by about 1 cm ASFA 2: Ocean Technology, Policy and Non Living Resources (Q2) 2051592 ----------------------------------------------------------------------...