Development of Ocean and Coastal Prediction Systems
Abstract
LONG-TERM GOAL. Our long term goals are to evaluate and develop better community numerical ocean models based on bottom following coordinate systems in order to improve the capabilities of these models to simulate realistic coastal and open ocean dynamics and improve the skill of operational coastal forecasting systems that use these models. OBJECTIVES. We wish to improve several crucial features of sigma coordinate ocean models such as the vertical discretization, numerical algorithms and bottom and surface boundary layers and to design a more flexible community ocean model for simulations of coastal regions, deep oceans and the interaction between the two. Of particular interest is to study the importance of bottom boundary layers in mesoscale high resolution models of western boundary currents and in basin-scale models. APPROACH. The sigma coordinate Princeton Ocean Model, POM (Blumberg and Mellor, 1987; Mellor, 1996) with various configurations is being used for numerous applications around the world such as process studies and operational forecast systems. However, the basic numerics of the model have not been changed much in the last decade since it became a popular community model. The approach we take is to improve the model components that have the largest uncertainties and are most critical for users, and to make the model configuration more flexible to adapt for future applications. In particular, two recent model improvements include a correction to the Mellor-Yamada (Mellor and Yamada, 1982) turbulence scheme and the conversion of the model code to a generalized coordinate system.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Sep 30, 1999
- Accession Number
- ADA629811
Entities
People
- George L. Mellor
- Tal Ezer