Development and Utilization of Regional Oceanic Modeling System (ROMS). Delicacy, Imprecision, and Uncertainty of Oceanic Simulations: An Investigation with the Regional Oceanic Modeling System (ROMS). Submesoscale Flows and Mixing in the Ocean Surface Layer Using the Regional Oceanic Modeling System (ROMS). Eddy Effects in General Circulation, Spanning Mean Currents, Mesoscale Eddies, and Topographic Generation, including Submesoscale Nests

Abstract

Our long-term goal is the continuing evolution of the Regional Oceanic Modeling System (ROMS) as a multi-scale, multi-process model and its utilization for studying a variety of oceanic phenomena. The dynamical processes span a range from turbulence to basin-scale circulation. A complementary goal is to explore, document, and explain the nature of the delicacies of the simulations for highly turbulent flows. Our primary objectives are code improvements and oceanographic simulation studies with ROMS, as well as with Large Eddy Simulation (LES) for boundary layer turbulence, with measurement comparisons where feasible. The targeted phenomena are submesoscale wakes, fronts, and eddies; shelf and nearshore currents; internal tides; regional and Pacific eddy-resolving circulations and their low-frequency variability; mesoscale ocean-atmosphere coupling; and planetary boundary layers with surface gravity waves. A parallel objective is to establish the characteristics of model uncertainty in ROMS for realistic simulation of complex flows, as an intrinsic model contribution to analysis and to forecast errors. The premise is that defensible alternative model designs in parameter values, subgrid-scale parameterizations, resolution, algorithms, topography, and forcing data may often provide a range of answers comparable to the model-measurement discrepancies. We hypothesize that some part of the model-to-measurement and model-to-model differences may be irreducibly inherent in the mathematical structure of modern simulation models.

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Document Details

Document Type
Technical Report
Publication Date
Sep 30, 2012
Accession Number
ADA590318

Entities

People

  • Alexander F Shchepetkin
  • James C. McWilliams
  • M. Jeroen Molemaker

Organizations

  • University of California, Los Angeles

Tags

Communities of Interest

  • Energy and Power Technologies
  • Space

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

  • Boundary Layer
  • Buoyancy
  • Cape Hatteras
  • Demographic Cohorts
  • Energy
  • Geography
  • Gulf Stream
  • Measurement
  • Ocean Observing Systems
  • Oceans
  • Simulations
  • Surface Temperature
  • Surface Waves
  • Three Dimensional
  • Topography
  • Turbulent Flow
  • Uncertainty

Fields of Study

  • Environmental science

Readers

  • Coastal Oceanography
  • Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD)
  • Computational Modeling and Simulation