SOCIB operational ocean forecasting system and multi-platform validation in the Western Mediterranean Sea

The paper describes the high-resolution Western Mediterranean Operational Forecasting System developed at the Balearic Islands Coastal Observing and Forecasting System (SOCIB). The system runs on a daily basis driven by high-resolution atmospheric forcing, providing 3-day forecasts of physical oceanic variables with a 2 km horizontal resolution, thus representing the ocean variability from mesoscale to basin scale from the Gibraltar Strait to the Sardinia Channel. A systematic regional monitoring and validation system has been developed using multi-platform observations, allowing the evaluation of both the overall realism of the predictions and the specific errors in each sub-basin.
 

Night-time SSTs (°C) for 8 August 2014 for optimally interpolated satellite data (left) and WMOP (middle), and the difference between the two (model minus satellite, right).
 
  • Reference: M. Juza , B. Mourre , L. Renault , S. Gómara , K. Sebastián , S. Lora , J. P. Beltran , B. Frontera , B. Garau, C. Troupin , M. Torner , E. Heslop , B. Casas , R. Escudier , G. Vizoso , J. Tintoré. SOCIB operational ocean forecasting system and multi-platform validation in the Western Mediterranean Sea, Journal of Operational Oceanography, Vol. 9, Iss. sup1, 2016.