Optimal Linear Fitting for Objective Determination of Ocean Mixed Layer Depth from Glider Profiles

Abstract

A new optimal linear fitting method has been developed to determine mixed layer depth from profile data. This methodology includes three steps: 1) fitting the profile data from the first point near the surface to a depth using a linear polynomial, 2) computing the error ratio of absolute bias of few data points below that depth versus the root-mean-square error of data points from the surface to that depth between observed and fitted data, and 3) finding the depth (i.e., the mixed layer depth) with maximum error ratio. Temperature profiles in the western North Atlantic Ocean over 14 November-15 December 2007, collected from two gliders (Seagliders) deployed by the Naval Oceanographic Office (NAVOCEANO), are used to demonstrate the capability of this method. The mean quality index (1.0 for perfect determination) for determining mixed layer depth is greater than 0.97, which is much higher than the critical value of 0.8 for well-defined mixed layer depth with that index.

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Document Details

Document Type
Technical Report
Publication Date
Sep 06, 2010
Accession Number
ADA535020

Entities

People

  • Chenwu Fan
  • Peter Cheng Chu

Organizations

  • Naval Postgraduate School

Tags

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

  • Abstracts
  • Atlantic Ocean
  • Curvature
  • Deep Oceans
  • Electronic Mail
  • Errors
  • Feasibility Studies
  • Information Operations
  • North Atlantic Ocean
  • Oceanography
  • Oceans
  • Polynomials
  • Quality Control
  • Sea Surface Temperature
  • Surface Temperature
  • Underwater Gliders
  • Unmanned Vehicles

Readers

  • Adaptive Control and Estimation with Uncertainty in Dynamic Systems.
  • Ocean-Atmosphere Mesoscale Modeling, Data Assimilation, and Flux Boundary Layers
  • Spectroscopy.

Technology Areas

  • Autonomy