A crucial aspect of modeling and monitoring the Earth system is the process of combining observations with forecastsfrom weather and climate models, known as data assimilation. Data assimilation creates the best estimate of the state of the Earth system, and can help identify model errors and create data sets for research.
To help advance this technique, on October 18-21, 2016, representatives from major operational centers and research institutions around the world met at Meteo-France in Toulouse, France, to discuss the benefits and challenges of data assimilation that is “coupled” — that is, where the estimation of the state of one part of the Earth system (i.e., the ocean), influences that of another (i.e., the atmosphere). A workshop report has just been published in the Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society that provides an overview of the topics covered, including methods, applications, gaps in science, key technical challenges, and future goals. As a follow up on this report, the organizers are preparing a paper that will provide a set of recommendations for how the scientific community can advance coupled data assimilation in support of Earth system monitoring and prediction.
This workshop was supported by CPO’s Modeling, Analysis, Predictions, and Projections program.
View workshop report: http://journals.ametsoc.org/doi/pdf/10.1175/BAMS-D-17-0036.1