Overview of the Navy's Coupled Mesoscale Modeling System and Future Plans

The Naval Research Laboratory (NRL) recently had developed several new capabilities for the Navy’s Coupled Ocean/Atmosphere Mesoscale Prediction System (COAMPS^®) to provide more accurate analyses and predictions of the atmosphere and ocean at high-resolution. An overview of these new COAMPS capabilities will be highlighted in this presentation. COAMPS is comprised of three-way interactive interactive components: the nonhydrostatic atmospheric model, NRL Coastal Ocean Model (NCOM) and the SWAN and WWIII wave models using the Earth System Modeling Framework (ESMF). A description of the coupled system will be presented along with examples from the coupled model. Capabilities that will be highlighted include: i) a coupled tropical cyclone (TC) system and a TC ensemble capability, ii) a coupled ensemble system, iii) 4D-variational and ensemble Kalman filter data assimilation systems, iv) a nested adjoint and mesoscale observation impact system, iv) new physical parameterization for the planetary boundary layer and moist processes, v) in-line aerosol model, vi) coupled sea ice (CICE) model, and vii) coupled hydrological modeling system. The tropical cyclone system, COAMPS-TC, has been one of the top performing dynamical models in the world for tropical cyclone intensity. Lastly, a discussion of the future plans for the Navy’s mesoscale modeling system will include a summary of the recent development of a new nonhydrostatic dynamical core model, NEPTUNE, based on spectral element and discontinuous Galerkin techniques. Examples of the new dynamical core will be shown for idealized and real-data cases.