ANGEO Annales Geophysicae ANGEO Ann. Geophys. 1432-0576 Copernicus Publications Göttingen, Germany 10.5194/angeo-24-3-2006 Comparison of a NLOM data assimilation product to direct measurements in the Antarctic Polar Frontal Zone: a case study Losch M. 1 Schukay R. 2 Strass V. 1 Cisewski B. 1 Alfred-Wegener-Institut für Polar- und Meeresforschung, Bremerhaven, Germany Universität Bremen, Germany 07 03 2006 24 1 3 6 Copyright: © 2006 M. Losch et al. 2006 This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported License. To view a copy of this licence, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/ This article is available from https://angeo.copernicus.org/articles/24/3/2006/angeo-24-3-2006.html The full text article is available as a PDF file from https://angeo.copernicus.org/articles/24/3/2006/angeo-24-3-2006.pdf

A comparison of the Naval Research Lab Layered Ocean Model (NLOM) nowcast fields with independent in-situ observations from a cruise in the Polar Frontal Zone of the Atlantic Sector of the Southern Ocean is presented. NLOM sea surface temperature fields can be used to determine the position of fronts and individual eddies, whereas the analyzed sea surface height appears to be out of phase. It is suggested that this dynamical inconsistency is caused by a low data coverage for assimilation at the time of the cruise in combination with the data assimilation technique, that treats sea surface height and sea surface temperature data independently.