Application of the 30km FIM-iHYCOM coupled model to subseasonal forecasting within S2S NMME

The North American Multi-Model Ensemble (NMME) project organized by NOAA/CPC is aimed at improving S2S forecast skill by employing a multi-model ensemble strategy. ESRL has committed to participating in the S2S NMME with its coupled global atmospheric/ocean model consisting of the Flow-following Icosahedral Model (FIM) and the icosahedral Hybrid Coordinate Ocean Model (i-HYCOM). FIM-iHYCOM hindcast runs are now in progress at 30km resolution, highest resolution for the 16-year subseasonal NMME, and provides another tool in which phenomena predictability and process sensitivity studies can be performed. Initial results from FIM-iHYCOM show different but comparable overall skill with CFSv2, suggesting that ensemble diversity and skill can be improved with its addition. Additional hindcast results will be reported at AMS.