Title Validation of an ocean model ensemble for the Barents Sea and the northeastern Nordic Seas Authors

• Main Authors: Arne Melsom, Ingerid Fossum
• Other Authors: The Pennsylvania State University CiteSeerX Archives
• Format: Text
• Language: English
• Published: 2009
• Subjects: Web; met.no; Barents Sea; Nordic Seas
• Online Access: http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/summary?doi=10.1.1.602.4972; http://met.no/Forskning/Publikasjoner/Publikasjoner_2009/filestore/validation.pdf

Results from the validation of an ocean circulation model ensemble are presented. The simulation is performed for a domain that covers the Barents Sea and adjacent ocean regions, with an eddy-permitting resolution of 4 km. The ensemble is generated from “perturbed ” atmospheric forcing fields. Model results are validated using data for hydrography, and observations of sea levels from tide gauges. The validation methods that are employed range from basic statistics (bias, rms-errors) to probability density functions and rank histograms. We find that the geostrophic currents flow parallel to the bottom slope as expected, but that the low-frequency variability of sea levels performs poorly. Further, the model is salt deprived, particularly in the Atlantic Water masses, while errors in temperature are moderate. The variability among ensemble members is found to be significantly lower than the observed variability.