Strong and recurrent coastal upwelling occur off the west coasts of the United States, Peru, Northwestern Africa, and Western Australia. On the West Coast of the United States, upwelling occurs mainly in spring and summer and is the cause of heavy fog in San Francisco. Upwelling is responsible for a large fraction of the mixing in the ocean and is thus important to biological productivity. The main purpose of my research is using large eddy simulation to provide understanding of the physics of upwelling. On the other hand, numerical simulations do not agree with measurements in upwelling or many other geophysical flows.
Data assimilation can improve the accuracy of such simulations.
The objectives of my research are thus twofold. I will investigate the physics of upwelling and devise assimilation techniques for improving forecasting skill.