Estimating Circulation Patterns by Combining Velocity and Tracer Observations

Leonid I. Piterbarg, Leonid M. Ivanov

Department of Mathematics, University of Southern California Kaprielian Hall, Los Angeles, USA.
Naval Postgraduate School Moneterey, Monterey, USA.

DOI: 10.4236/ojapps.2013.31002                

Abstract

A method is suggested for estimating unknown velocities by combining their sparse measurements with observations of a tracer on a fine grid advected by the underlined velocity field. The dependence of the estimation error on a coarseness parameter and parameters of the flow in question is investigated numerically using synthetic velocity fields typical for real oceanic circulation. In an advanced version of the estimation procedure uncertainty in the transport equation forcing is modeled via a fuzzy sets approach. We also compare the method with a traditional interpolation which is in contrast to the developed procedure unable to capture the flow details.

Keywords

Data Fusion; Inverse Problem; Surface Velocities; Fuzzy Sets

Conflicts of Interest

The authors declare no conflicts of interest.

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