Solvability of the observation data assimilation problem in the three-dimensional model of ocean dynamics (Q1033629)

This work is concerned with a three-dimensional modeling of flows in an ocean on a spherical earth. The time-dependent Navier-Stokes equations are considered in spherical coordinates \((x, y, r)\) where \(x\) and \(y\) denote the longitute and the latitude, respectively and \(r\) is the radial distance. The vertical coordinate is defined as \(z = R - r\) where \(R\) is the earth radius. The bottom of the ocean is given by a function \(z = H(x, y)\). The fluid is assumed to be incompressible obeying the Boussinesq approximation. The density of the medium is supposed to be a first degree polynomial in the temperature and the salinity of the fluid and these quantities satisfy appropriate diffusion equations. Boussinesq approximation enables one to evaluate the vertical component of the velocity field in terms of its tangential components. Therefore the dependent variables are two components of the tangential velocity field, the surface elevation at the free boundary, the temperature and the salinity. Field equations then turns out to to be integro-differential equations satisfying some initial and boundary conditions. The authors properly define certain function spaces equipped with norms and inner products. By employing some embedding theorems associated with Banach and Sobolev spaces they manage to show the existence of some norm inequalities through which they are able to transform the field equations into a weak form involving inner products with arbitrary admissible functions. Then they prove by using techniques of functional analysis the existence of a weak solution of the problem. In the second part of their work they show that the heat flux and the moisture flux on the free boundary are obtainable from the observational data of the surface elevation and the surface temperature by minimizing a quadratic functional.