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Arctic and Nordic Seas
P18 - Mohn-Sverdrup Center Barents Sea HYCOM (MSC-Barents)
Model domain and topography Project name, acronym
MSC-Barents
Domain
The model covers the Barents and Kara Seas with 4 to 5 km resolution (conformal mapping grid) Approximately from 65N to 82N and from 5E to 100E.
Objectives
Real-time monitoring and prediction system, hindcast studies, research.
The objective is to forecast the currents and sea-ice conditions in the Barents and Kara Seas and to provide input data to an iceberg forecasting system
Customers:
Research, oil & gas industry (Statoil, KARBIAC JIP), shipping, society at large.
Funding aspects:
This project is supported by a private donation from Trond Mohn C/O Frank Mohn AS, Bergen, by the European MERSEA Integrated project and industry projects with Statoil and the KARBIAC JIP.
Downscaling strategy
One-way and off-line nesting offer sufficient flexibility for operating the nested model.
HYCOM-to-HYCOM downscaling, the outer model is TOPAZ. The downscaling method is from that of Browning and Kreiss (1982, 1986) with bilinear interpolation to the nested rotated horizontal grid. The ice parameters are also nested. The frequency of nesting conditions is 6-hourly. Astronomical tides are added.
The monitoring and prediction system is driven by external inputs, atmospheric forcing fields from ECMWF.
The predictions are run daily on a forecast horizon of 2.5 days.
| Why does this project need large-scale estimates? | The Barents Sea is very sensitive to the variability of the North Atlantic Water inflow, the exchanges of Arctic Water and of sea-ice with the Central Arctic. High quality lateral boundary conditions of ocean and sea-ice parameters are absolutely vital. |
| Strategy for validation of boundary conditions? | The incoming fluxes, kinetic energy, sea ice and water mass properties are monitored in the nested model and compared to available observations and to the outer model. |
| What particular GODAE estimates does this project use, how often, etc.? | The project uses TOPAZ boundary conditions for 3D ocean parameters and sea-ice. The frequency of nesting files is 6-hours. Tides are included. |
| Through which Modelling/Assimilation Center? | The Mohn-Sverdrup Center at the Nansen Center, Bergen. |
Project status
The model validation against hydrographic data has been presented at the EGU general assembly in April 2006 for a hindcast study of the year 1979 (extremely severe ice conditions). The forecasts are running daily since 1st September 2006. A 20-years hindcast is planned.
Web: http://msc.nersc.no/barents_sea.php
(Last Updated: 17-01-2008)