“On the road toward real-time, coupled bio-physical, coastal forecast systems”
Dr. John C. Kindle
Naval Research Laboratory
Stennis Space Center
Monday, March 21, 2005
3:30 PM
Room 109, Crittenton Hall
Abstract
Results from a real-time modeling system for the U.S. west coast are presented and evaluated relative to
observations. As of June 2004, daily results from the Naval Research Laboratory (NRL) global NCOM (Navy Coastal
Ocean Model) are posted on the Web (http://www7320.nrlssc.navy.mil/ccsnrt/) with approximately a one-day delay.
Model surface currents and sea surface height are shown together with SeaWIFS chlorophyll images for the years
prior to 2005; MODIS-AQUA images are shown beginning in January 2005. During the spring of 2005, the system will
also include results from a high resolution coupled bio-physical model that uses a regional NCOM with an embedded
ecosystem model based on the formulation of Chai et al. (2002). The regional NCOM receives boundary information
from the global model and is forced by high resolution surface fluxes from a regional COAMPS atmospheric model.
The global NCOM system, which is currently being tested for operational use at the Naval Oceanographic Office,
and the regional NCOM assimilate daily MCSST surface temperature values and synthetic profiles of temperature and
salinity obtained from the Modular Ocean Data Assimilation system (MODAS) product, which regresses satellite-derived
SST and SSH values to obtain the synthetic profiles. The NRL Ocean Color Section processes the 1-km resolution SeaWIFS
and MODIS imagery using standard and newly developed algorithms to obtain a variety of bio-optical products. Results
clearly reveal the close linkages between the spatial and temporal structure of the surface chlorophyll fields to the
mesoscale variability of the California Current system. Results from a multi-year simulation (January 2000-present)
of the three-dimensional ecosystem model embedded within the real-time regional NCOM system are also presented.
Although the ecosystem model does not, at present, assimilate any bio-optical information, it is able to reproduce
much of the spatial and temporal variability of the observed surface chlorophyll fields, particularly during the
summer and fall seasons. Model results are used to identify present capabilities as well as issues that need to be
addressed in future efforts.
Biography
John C. Kindle, an Oceanographer at the Naval Research Laboratory Stennis Space Center for the past 24 years,
is head of the Coupled Processes Section within the Ocean Sciences Branch. He received a Ph. D. in Physical
Oceanography from the Florida State University in 1979, a M.S. in Oceanography from New York University in 1971,
and a B.S. in Physics from the University of Dayton in 1969. Research interests include numerical modeling,
tropical dynamics, coastal upwelling regimes, coupled biological-physical processes, coupled air-ocean processes,
the development of real-time ocean prediction models, and the evaluation of surface flux fields derived from
operational atmospheric models.
Reception before seminar at 3:00 PM
Crittenton Hall
Old Dominion University
Norfolk, VA 23529
757-683-5548
Last updated 2/21/2005.
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