Objective analysis for coastal regimes

Statistical interpolation of coastal oceanic fields is addressed within the general framework of Gauss–Markov estimation. Computation of the prior covariance of the field to be estimated is posed as a stochastically-forced differential equation subject to coastal boundary conditions with inhomogeneous, anisotropic parameters. Solution is readily implemented in standard finite element methodology. Examples illustrate the method for idealized one-dimensional situations. Analysis of real biological data from Massachusetts and Cape Cod Bay is shown, using a covariance function derived from velocity and diffusivity fields computed with a hydrodynamic model. The procedure defaults to standard OA methods using distance-based covariance functions, far from boundaries and inhomogeneities.