IN43C-1745
Biological Heating in a Global Operational Ocean Forecast System: Using VIIRS Products and a Two-band Scheme

Thursday, 17 December 2015
Poster Hall (Moscone South)
Hae-Cheol Kim1, Avichal Mehra2, Zulema D Garraffo3, Sudhir Nadiga4, Eric J Bayler5 and David Behringer4, (1)IMSG at NOAA/NWS, College Park, MD, United States, (2)NOAA/NWS/NCEP/EMC, College Park, MD, United States, (3)IMSG, College Park, MD, United States, (4)Environmental Modeling Center, College Park, MD, United States, (5)National Environmental Satellite, Data, and Information Service, Silver Spring, MD, United States
Abstract:
A key long-term goal for the NWS/NCEP Environmental Modeling Center (EMC) is integrating biogeochemical variables within NOAA’s Global Real-Time Ocean Forecast System (RTOFS-Global), implementing, as appropriate, the assimilation of relevant observations for an enhanced spectrum and accuracy of forecasts. In this initial effort, we combined VIIRS products with a recent algorithm (Lee et al., 2005) that can resolve vertical distribution of downwelling solar irradiance at two separate bands (EVIS: 400-700 nm and EIR: 700-2000 nm), and examined the heat transfer and its effects on the upper oceanic thermal structure in the operational RTOFS-Global. Our near-term future goals include: coupling of a global ocean biogeochemical model (Gregg, 2008) to the operational RTOFS-Global; and validation of free runs with VIIRS-derived ocean color products. This will eventually lead to the end-point goal, building data assimilative lower trophic ecosystem components in the context of setting/updating baselines of daily marine ecosystem processes. Assimilation of VIIRS data will provide a unique and timely opportunity to establish a path toward ecological forecasting through biogeochemical analyses and forecasts. This proposed effort fully aligns with NOAA’s ecological forecasting roadmap’s objectives to: establish the infrastructure capability for operational biogeochemical modeling; quantify forecast accuracy and utility; identify gaps; and prioritize improvements in ecological products and services.