Where to start?

As I've mentioned before I've got a title. Yey!!

"Incorporating data assimilation in numerically predicting sea ice to assist navigation in the Arctic Ocean"

I also need to take classes as well. This semester I'm just taking three classes but until add drop period I'll be taking nearly 5 classes. I hope I'll be able to figure-out the classes I'm taking soon enough so that I can focus on my real research.

Right now I'm taking Marine Environment modeling class, also I take propulsion engines, Coastal environment studies, Urban engineering. That's a nice mix. The first one was suppose to be in English but the lecturer decided to do it in Japanese, Therefore I might want to drop the class later. My favorite out of all the classes is propulsion engines. It's about space propulsion engines. It's damn interesting.

 Getting back to my title, the key words are data assimilation, numerically predicting sea ice, Arctic ocean. My knowledge about them is really low. But one time I read in an article, that getting a PhD and being an expert in an area are two things. Therefore I'll not make the same mistake as  in Msc by going in to the details of my minor. I'd rather try to find answers to the following questions.

1. What is data assimilation?
2. What data assimilation methods are most suitable?
3. Which parameters should be used in data assimilation?
4.Where in Arctic should I focus first?
5. What is POM?
6. What is ICEPOM?
7. How are they compiled?
8. How does one create a mesh, assign initial conditions and boundary conditons and run a simulation in the cluster using ICE-POM?

These are to be answered during the first few months. First of all I'm gonna read the manual of ICE-POM to get started.