Cool-Skin and Warm-Layer Corrections to Sea Surface Temperature in NCOM
Abstract
We report on the recent study to implement and test the schemes for calculating the skin sea surface temperature in the Navy's Coastal Ocean Model (NCOM). This includes three schemes for estimating the temperature anomaly (i.e., the correction) in the ocean cool skin, and a fourth scheme for estimating the temperature anomaly in the warm layer that may develop in the near subsurface depths due to solar heating. Coding details of the implementation are documented. Applications of the schemes are made, and the results are compared with field measurements. To understand the behaviors of the schemes, the model results from different applications are also compared with each other. Of particular note is the issue of possibly double-counting the effect of solar radiation when the warm-layer correction scheme is applied in an ocean model with sufficiently fine vertical resolution in the upper depths, since the modeled temperature field has already accounted for the solar heating. Some further improvements are discussed, including feeding the effects of skin sea surface temperature into the ocean model integration when NCOM is run stand-alone without being coupled with an atmospheric model.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Nov 13, 2023
- Accession Number
- AD1214778
Entities
People
- David D. Flagg
- Jie Yu
- Timothy J. Campbell
- Tommy G. Jensen
Organizations
- United States Naval Research Laboratory