Recent development of the Met Office operational ocean forecasting system: an overview and assessment of the new Global FOAM forecasts

作者：Ed Blockley, Matthew James Martin, Alison J. McLaren, Andrew Ryan, Jennifer C. Waters, Daniel J. Lea, Isabelle Mirouze, K. Andrew Peterson, Alistair Sellar, David Storkey · 发表于：Geoscientific model development · 年份：2014 · DOI：10.5194/gmd-7-2613-2014 · 被引用次数：243 · 研究领域：Arctic and Antarctic ice dynamics、Oceanographic and Atmospheric Processes、Climate variability and models

Abstract. The Forecast Ocean Assimilation Model (FOAM) is an operational ocean analysis and forecast system run daily at the Met Office. FOAM provides modelling capability in both deep ocean and coastal shelf sea regimes using the NEMO (Nucleus for European Modelling of the Ocean) ocean model as its dynamical core. The FOAM Deep Ocean suite produces analyses and 7-day forecasts of ocean tracers, currents and sea ice for the global ocean at 1/4° resolution. Satellite and in situ observations of temperature, salinity, sea level anomaly and sea ice concentration are assimilated by FOAM each day over a 48 h observation window. The FOAM Deep Ocean configurations have recently undergone a major upgrade which has involved the implementation of a new variational, first guess at appropriate time (FGAT) 3D-Var, assimilation scheme (NEMOVAR); coupling to a different, multi-thickness-category, sea ice model (CICE); the use of coordinated ocean-ice reference experiment (CORE) bulk formulae to specify the surface boundary condition; and an increased vertical resolution for the global model. In this paper the new FOAM Deep Ocean system is introduced and details of the recent changes are provided. Results are presented from 2-year reanalysis integrations of the Global FOAM configuration including an assessment of short-range ocean forecast accuracy. Comparisons are made with both the previous FOAM system and a non-assimilative FOAM system. Assessments reveal considerable improvements in the ...