Fusion of ocean data from multiple sources using deep learning: Utilizing sea temperature as an example

For investigating ocean activities and comprehending the role of the oceans in global climate change, it is essential to gather high-quality ocean data. However, existing ocean observation data have deficiencies such as inconsistent spatial and temporal distribution, severe fragmentation, and restricted observation depth layers. Data assimilation is computationally intensive, and other conventional data fusion techniques offer poor fusion precision. This research proposes a novel multi-source ocean data fusion network (ODF-Net) based on deep learning as a solution for these issues. The ODF-Net comprises a number of one-dimensional residual blocks that can rapidly fuse conventional observations, satellite observations, and three-dimensional model output and reanalysis data. The model utilizes vertical ocean profile data as target constraints, integrating physics-based prior knowledge to improve the precision of the fusion. The network structure contains channel and spatial attention mechanisms that guide the network model's attention to the most crucial features, hence enhancing model performance and interpretability. Comparing multiple global sea temperature datasets reveals that the ODF-Net achieves the highest accuracy and correlation with observations. To evaluate the feasibility of the proposed method, a global monthly three-dimensional sea temperature dataset with a spatial resolution of 0.25 degrees x0.25 degrees is produced by fusing ocean data from multiple sources from 1994 to 2017. The rationality tests on the fusion dataset show that ODF-Net is reliable for integrating ocean data from various sources.