Power Law Decay in Model Predictability Skill

Abstract

Ocean predictability skill is investigated using a Gulf of Mexico nowcast/forecast model. Power law scaling is found in the mean square error of displacement between drifting buoy and model trajectories (both at 50 m depth). The probability density function of the model valid prediction period (VPP) is asymmetric with a long and broad tail on the higher value side, which suggests long-term predictability. The calculations demonstrate that the long-term (extreme long, such as 50-60 day) predictability is not an "outlier" and shares the same statistical properties as the short-term predictions.

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Document Details

Document Type
Technical Report
Publication Date
Jan 01, 2002
Accession Number
ADA479712

Entities

People

  • Lakshmi H. Kantha
  • Leonid M. Ivanov
  • Oleg V. Melnichenko
  • Peter Cheng Chu
  • Yuri A. Poberezhny

Organizations

  • Naval Postgraduate School

Tags

Communities of Interest

  • Energy and Power Technologies
  • Space

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

  • Amplitude
  • Colorado
  • Data Analysis
  • Diffusion
  • Equations
  • Fokker Planck Equations
  • Law
  • Oceanography
  • Oceans
  • Probability
  • Probability Density Functions
  • Radio Engineering
  • Random Walk
  • Scaling Laws
  • Statistics
  • Stochastic Processes
  • Trajectories

Readers

  • Ocean-Atmosphere Mesoscale Modeling, Data Assimilation, and Flux Boundary Layers
  • Statistical inference.