The Application of ARGO Data to the Global Ocean Data Assimilation Operational System of NCC

In this paper, we have preliminarily studied the application of ARGO (Array for Real-time Geostrophic Oceanography) data to the Global Ocean Data Assimilation System of National Climate Center of China (NCC-GODAS), which mainly contains 4 sub-systems such as data preprocessing, real-time wind stress calculating, variational analysis and interpolating, and ocean dynamic model. For the sake of using ARGO data, the relevant adjustment and improvement have been made at the corresponding aspects in the sub- systems. Using the observation data from 1981 to 2003 including the ARGO data of 2001 to July. 2003, we have performed a series of numerical experiments on this system. Comparing with the corresponding results of NCEP, It is illustrated that using ARGO data can improve the results of NCC-GODAS in the region of the Middle Pacific, for instance SST, SSTA (SST anomalies), Nino index, sea sub-surface temperature, etc. Furthermore, it is obtained that NCC-GODAS benefits from ARGO data in the other regions such as Atlantic Ocean, Indian Ocean, and extratropical Pacific Ocean much more than in the tropical Pacific.