Extended Abstract (152K)1.3
A First Assessment of the Response of a Mesoscale Coastal Ocean Model to Forcing by a Mesoscale Coastal Atmospheric Model
Christopher N. K. Mooers, Univ. of Miami/RSMAS, Miami, FL; and I. Bang and P. Q. Olsson
A prototype, quasi-operational nowcast/forecast system for the coastal ocean and atmosphere has been established in the research mode for Prince William Sound (PWS), Alaska. The coastal ocean model is an implementation of the Princeton Ocean Model (POM) with a resolution of ca. 1 km, and the coastal atmospheric model is an implementation of the Regional Atmospheric Modeling System (RAMS) with a resolution of ca.4 km. PWS is a small (diameter ca. 100 km) semi-enclosed sea with two ports and a complex shoreline due to the coastal orography and its consequent multiple subaerial canyons and oceanic fjords. PWS is forced by strong synoptic scale (e.g., extratropical cyclones) and mesoscale winds (e.g., orographic “gap winds” and “barrier winds”), buoyant throughflow forcing from the Alaska Coastal Current, strong precipitation and runoff from snowmelt within PWS, and strong tides. Two NDBC buoys and three CMAN coastal meteorological stations, all strategically located, provide the basis for verification of surface winds from PWS-RAMS. Coastal sea levels from three coastal tide gauges, and SSTs from those tide gauges and the NDBC buoy and CMAN sites, provide the basis for verification of PWS-POM. Synoptic case studies are run to characterize the nature of the wind field and the subsequent coastal ocean response, and to quantify the degree of verification versus observations. A base reference case is provided by hourly wind-forcing from a NDBC buoy in the center of PWS against which the value added by cases with PWS-RAMS-forcing of PWS-POM can be, at least partially, assessed.
Supplementary URL: http://pws-nfs-osri.rsmas.miami.edu
Session 1, Air-Sea Processes and Modeling
Wednesday, 6 August 2003, 10:30 AM-3:30 PM
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