TOPS 3.0: An Upgrade to Ocean Thermal Analysis and Prediction at FNOC

• Main Authors: Harding, John H., May, Paul W.
• Other Authors: NAVAL OCEANOGRAPHIC AND ATMOSPHERIC RESEARCH LAB STENNIS SPACE CENTER MS
• Format: Text
• Language: English
• Published: 1989
• Subjects: Meteorology; Physical and Dynamic Oceanography; *OCEANS; STEREOMAPPING; PREDICTIONS; DYNAMICS; LAYERS; THERMODYNAMICS; PROCESSING; GRIDS; WIND; MODULAR CONSTRUCTION; DRIFT; THERMAL ANALYSIS; MIXING; SOUTHERN HEMISPHERE; MEDITERRANEAN SEA; ADVECTION; EAST(DIRECTION); NORTHERN HEMISPHERE; THERMAL PROPERTIES; POLAR REGIONS; *OCEAN MODELS; *MIXED LAYER(MARINE); TOPS(THERMODYNAMIC OCEAN PREDICTION SYSTEM); FORECASTING; AIR WATER INTERACTIONS; REPRINTS; WUDN259002; PE63207N; Mellor; Norwegian Sea; Pacific
• Online Access: http://www.dtic.mil/docs/citations/ADA230962; http://oai.dtic.mil/oai/oai?&verb=getRecord&metadataPrefix=html&identifier=ADA230962

The Thermodynamic Ocean Prediction System (TOPS) uses Mellor-Yamada Level II mixing and Ekman dynamics to forecast upper-ocean mixing and wind-drift advection. The U.S. Navy's Fleet Numerical Oceanography Center (FNOC) cycles TOPS with its operational, upper-ocean =, thermal analyses for several regional areas. These include the northern and southern hemispheres, the eastern and western Mediterranean Sea and the Norwegian Sea. The analyses (or nowcasts) provide initial conditions to TOPS. The TOPS 24 hr. forecast, in turn, provides first-guess information to the following day's nowcast. TOPS thus provides up to three-day forecasts of the upper ocean thermal structure as well as an extra source of upper ocean information to the thermal analyses in data sparse areas. Present versions (TOPS and TOPS 2.1) limit applications to 63 x 63 grides associated with the standard FNOC polar stereographic grids. TOPS 3.0, a major upgrade developed at the Naval Ocean Research and Development Activity and presently being implemented at FNOC, expands the application potential of TOPS. Greater modularity and reorientation of the major TOPS pre- and post processing to the 4-pipe CDC CYBER 205 super-computer allows larger, variable-dimension grids. We present results of TOPS 3.0 applied to the FNOC 125 x 125 mid-Pacific region (approx. 50 km. resolution). Included are examples of the regional diurnal ocean surface layer model contained with the TOPS 3.0 run stream. This model provides additional information on diurnal variability within the mixed layer.