Search

To enhance better understanding and improve the predictive capability for the ocean’s role in future climate change scenarios, Estimating the Circulation and Climate of the Ocean, Phase II (ECCO2) and National Centers for Environmental Prediction (NCEP) assimilation/reanalysis datasets were compared with the TRITON and RAMA mooring buoys observational data at the point 1.5ºS, 90ºE in the Indian Ocean. Root mean square deviation (rmsd) and bias values of the GODAS/NCEP reanalysis, and TRITON and RAMA observations were used for comparison of the meridional and zonal currents and salinity at the surface, and temperature at different depth of the mixed layer. On the basis of comparison we can say that the GODAS/NCEP reanalysis is not much satisfactory to use as input for the best prediction because its performance is not better in comparison to the observational data. It may also be concluded that the performance of the ECCO2 is better than the GODAS/NCEP on the basis of the comparison of the plots but still not very clear due to unavailability of equal ECCO2 temporal data set. We suggest that there might be certainly some forcing and assimilation techniques are missing to make better performance of the assimilation/ reanalysis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this article, we summarize the work of the NASA Outer Planets Assessment Group (OPAG) Roadmaps to Ocean Worlds (ROW) group. The aim of this group is to assemble the scientific framework that will guide the exploration of ocean worlds, and to identify and prioritize science objectives for ocean worlds over the next several decades. The overarching goal of an Ocean Worlds exploration program as defined by ROW is to "identify ocean worlds, characterize their oceans, evaluate their habitability, search for life, and ultimately understand any life we find." The ROW team supports the creation of an exploration program that studies the full spectrum of ocean worlds, that is, not just the exploration of known ocean worlds such as Europa but candidate ocean worlds such as Triton as well. The ROW team finds that the confirmed ocean worlds Enceladus, Titan, and Europa are the highest priority bodies to target in the near term to address ROW goals. Triton is the highest priority candidate ocean world to target in the near term. A major finding of this study is that, to map out a coherent Ocean Worlds Program, significant input is required from studies here on Earth; rigorous Research and Analysis studies are called for to enable some future ocean worlds missions to be thoughtfully planned and undertaken. A second finding is that progress needs to be made in the area of collaborations between Earth ocean scientists and extraterrestrial ocean scientists.