  Data assimilation is used in numerical simulations of laboratory experiments
in a stratified, rotating fluid. The experiments are performed on the large
Coriolis turntable (Grenoble, France), which achieves a high degree of
similarity with the ocean, and the simulations are performed with a two-layer
shallow water model. Since the flow is measured with a high level of precision
and resolution, a detailed analysis of a forecasting system is feasible. Such a
task is much more difficult to undertake at the oceanic scale because of the
paucity of observations and problems of accuracy and data sampling. This opens
the way to an experimental test bed for operational oceanography. To illustrate
this, some results on the baroclinic instability of a two-layer vortex are
presented.
