A modular system for ocean data assimilation has recently been developed. It has already been implemented in an unsophisticated way, with a variety of models of the ocean and the coupled ocean-atmosphere. This project will enhance the system using Information Technology, including modern software engineering concepts, new visualization techniques and interactive web-based training. Together with effective outreach and advanced optimization algorithms, these elements of IT will be linked through the modular system to a wide range of coastal, basin-scale and global ocean models. Variational data assimilation is also coming into use in operational weather forecasting and ocean forecasting, in ocean biogeochemistry, in groundwater hydrology and in solid-earth geophysics. The new modular system will thus be of immediate benefit throughout the geosciences. The team includes 14 physical oceanographers, civil engineers and computer scientists in six universities, a national laboratory, and private industry. The project is funded under the Information Technology Research Initiative
