Predicting "Ocean Weather" Using the HYbrid Coordinate Ocean Model (HYCOM)
Abstract
Development of an advanced global ocean prediction system has been a long-term Navy interest. Such a system must provide the capability to depict (nowcast) and predict (forecast) the oceanic "weather,"some components of which include the 3D temperature, salinity, and current structure, the surface mixed layer, and the location of mesoscale features such as eddies, meandering currents, and fronts. Numerical ocean models with sufficiently high horizontal and vertical resolution are needed to depict the 3D structure with accuracy superior to climatology and/or persistence (i.e., a forecast of no change). The next-generation system is based on a single model, the HYbrid Coordinate Ocean Model (HYCOM), that was developed as part of a multi-institutional consortium between academia, government, and private industry. At 2.2 times the horizontal resolution of NCOM, the HYCOM system is eddy-resolving, a distinction associated with important dynamical implications for both ocean model dynamical interpolation skill in the assimilation of ocean data and for ocean model forecast skill.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Jan 01, 2009
- Accession Number
- ADA525037
Entities
People
- Alan J. Wallcraft
- E. P. Chassignet
- Edward Joseph Metzger
- Harley E. Hurlburt
- J. A. Cummings
- Ole Martin Smedstad
Organizations
- United States Naval Research Laboratory