W. A. Kuperman
C. Shen
Naval Res. Lab., Washington, DC 20375
M. B. Porter
New Jersey Inst. of Technol., Newark, NJ 07102
Circulation models predict the ocean weather (temperature), which in turn determines the manner in which sound propagates. The ocean models, like their atmospheric counterparts, tend to drift away from reality as they are marched forward in time. In order to prevent this, tomographically constructed images of the ocean are assimilated into the circulation model. Furthermore, flow constraints provided by the ocean circulation model are used to exclude unrealistic structures and thereby enhance the quality of the tomographic imaging. The algorithmic issues of linking acoustic and ocean circulation models in this fashion, and the benefits of doing so, are discussed.