Global Ocean Forecast System 3.1 Validation Test

• Main Authors: Metzger,E J, Helber,Robert W, Hogan,Patrick J, Posey,Pamela G, Thoppil,Prasad G, Townsend,Tamara L, Wallcraft,Alan J, Smedstad,Ole M, Franklin,Deborah S, Zamudo-Lopez,Luis, Phelps,Michael W
• Other Authors: NAVAL RESEARCH LAB STENNIS DETACHMENT STENNIS SPACE CENTER MS STENNIS SPACE CENTER United States
• Format: Text
• Language: English
• Published: 2017
• Subjects: ocean models; ocean currents; measurement; statistics; wind stress; salinity; weather forecasting; validation; 10008; Arctic; Sea ice
• Online Access: http://www.dtic.mil/docs/citations/AD1034517; http://oai.dtic.mil/oai/oai?&verb=getRecord&metadataPrefix=html&identifier=AD1034517

The Global Ocean Forecast System (GOFS) 3.1 is comprised of the 1/12 HYbrid Coordinate Ocean Model that is two-way coupled to the Community Ice CodE in a daily update cycle with the Navy Coupled Ocean Data Assimilation. Additionally it uses Improved Synthetic OceanProfiles to project surface information downward into the water column. GOFS nowcasts/forecasts the oceans weather, which includes the three-dimensional ocean temperature, salinity and current structure, the surface mixed layer, the location of mesoscale features, and ice concentration, thickness and drift in both hemispheres. It is scheduled to replace GOFS 3.0 for the ocean and the Arctic Cap Nowcast/ForecastSystem (ACNFS) for sea ice, both of which are the existing operational systems at the Naval Oceanographic Office. This report describes the system comparisons against unassimilated observations at both the nowcast time and as a function of forecast length. An ocean scorecard provides the relative performance of GOFS 3.1 vs. GOFS 3.0. Overall, GOFS 3.1 is performing equal to or better than both GOFS 3.0 and ACNFS, and is recommended to become the next global operational system.