Engineering topics

Barnier, B.

Publications and source records attributed to Barnier, B..

2 records

NASA NTRS1994

Mapping ERS-1 wind fields over north west Atlantic using a variational objective analysis

A variational method is implemented to produce five day mean gridded ERS-1 analyzed wind fields in the north west Atlantic with the aim of providing for wind forcing of basin scale ocean models. The method consists of minimizing a cost functional, designed to measure misfits to prescribed weighted constraints which express a smoothed behavior and the proximity to input data vectors and curl. The weights are empirically determined by comparison with independent ship and buoy data over four five day periods. Root mean square differences between analyzed winds and independent data are thus further decreased: they range from 0.8 up to 1.8 m/s. Some problems present in the initial data remain; they are principally due to incomplete data coverage (instrumental problems), and possibly unresolved ambiguities. The resulting curl fields are smoothed and show coherent patterns. A comparison with the European Center for Medium range Weather Forecasting (ECMWF) analysis is encouraging.

Siefridt, L.↗

NASA NTRS1986

Investigation of seasonal variability of the wind stress curl over the North Atlantic Ocean by means of empirical orthogonal function analysis

The seasonal variability of the wind stress curl over the North Atlantic is investigated by means of empirical orthogonal function (EOF) analysis. The curl field is calculated from 1 year of First Global GARP Experiment wind data. It was found that 44 percent of the variability is contained in four significant eigenvectors. Their spatial patterns are characterized by basin-sized oscillations with larger amplitude to the north of 40 deg N. Their associated time series coefficients have the highest amplitude during the winter and show a tendency toward a white frequency spectrum which nevertheless exhibits noticeable peaks or gaps at certain frequencies. Physically, the first EOF is seen as the seasonal fluctuations of the mean wind stress curl pattern. Five other eigenvectors are also found to be above the noise level, but they account for only a smaller percentage of variability (19 percent). They are characterized by smaller spatial scales than the basin size. Their time series coefficients show a whiter frequency spectrum.

Barnier, B.↗