Towards the development of a regional observing/modeling system in Vietnam: Lessons from a short-term training in the use of the Regional Ocean Modeling System (ROMS)

As part of a USA-Vietnam collaborative program the Department of Marine and Coastal Sciences of Rutgers University hosted two oceanographers from the Center for Environmental Fluid Dynamics (CEFD) of Vietnam National University for a period of three months during 2019. The long-term objectives of the CEFD is to develop a two-way nested operational analysis/forecast system based on ROMS that assimilates different observational data-streams such as sea surface temperature and sea level anomaly from satellites, surface currents from high-frequency radars, currents from Acoustic Doppler Current Profilers, and other in-situ data. The nested domains were designed to downscale the solution from the parent model to different target areas of regional relevance in terms of alleviating practical problems such as water quality and coastal erosion. The modeling system will also be used to inform stakeholders about possible observing system configurations that can increase forecast skill at regional scales. In this work we present a progress summary of this collaborative work as a case study of capacity building in ocean modeling and observing system design with the purpose of expanding the global oceanographic infrastructure. We also summarize the lessons learned and the resources needed in terms of computational equipment, supporting data for model development and validation, and prior experience of trainees for a short-term training in ocean modeling to be successful.