Applications of deep learning in physical oceanography: a comprehensive review

Abstract

Deep learning, a data-driven technology, has attracted widespread attention from various disciplines due to the rapid advancements in the Internet of Things (IoT) big data, machine learning algorithms and computational hardware in recent years. It proves to achieve comparable or even more accurate results than traditional methods in a more flexible manner in existing applications in various fields. In the field of physical oceanography, an important scientific field of oceanography, the abundance of ocean surface data and high dynamic complexity pave the way for an extensive application of deep learning. Moreover, researchers have already conducted a great deal of work to innovate traditional approaches in ocean circulation, ocean dynamics, ocean climate, ocean remote sensing and ocean geophysics, leading oceanographic studies into the “AI ocean era”. In our study, we categorize numerous research topics in physical oceanography into four aspects: surface elements, subsurface elements, typical ocean phenomena, and typical weather and climate phenomena. We review the cutting-edge applications of deep learning in physical oceanography over the past three years to provide comprehensive insights into its development. From the perspective of three application scenarios, namely spatial data, temporal data and data generation, three corresponding deep learning model types are introduced, which are convolutional neural networks (CNNs), recurrent neural networks (RNNs) and generative adversarial networks (GANs), and also their principal application tasks. Furthermore, this study discusses the current bottlenecks and future innovative prospects of deep learning in oceanography. Through summarizing and analyzing the existing research, our aim is to delve into the potential and challenges of deep learning in physical oceanography, providing reference and inspiration for researchers in future oceanographic studies.