Toward the societal applications of ocean data assimilation and forecast: Potential contributions to ForeSea and CoastPredict

Ocean predictions rely largely on ocean simulations, but errors in a simulation always increase over the time. This is where data assimilation could help – data assimilation is used to calibrate model intermediate outputs with observation data and then create more accurate initial values for ocean predictions. Data assimilation combines numerical ocean simulation and observation data using statistical methods and dynamic theories, and thus provides more accurate three-dimensional ocean state datasets without missing values.

This incubator aims to highlight the relevance and usefulness of ocean data assimilation and prediction systems, and explore collaborations among various stakeholders and partners, in order to build up the ocean information value chain from ocean observing systems to applications. This incubator will provide an opportunity to connect with two recently-endorsed UN Ocean Decade programmes, CoastPredict and ForeSea, which aim to enhance the capacity for coastal and open ocean predictions based on numerical ocean modeling and data assimilation techniques.