| World Ocean Circulation Experiment (WOCE) hydrographic sections and a sea-surface climatology are combined with a ocean general circulation model through a 4D-variational method to analyze the meridional overturning of the Indian Ocean. The regional model is run with realistic surface forcings over year 1995 for which most of WOCE Indian Ocean sections were made. The assimilation controls the initial temperature and salinity fields, surface forcings and open-boundary velocities, temperature and salinity. When no observations are assimilated, the model shows that the deep (below 1000 m) meridional overturning is weak compared to observation-based estimates. This is a common feature of general circulation models. In contrast, after the assimilation, the... |
