GODAE is sponsored by
The CSS projects
Norwegian, Baltic and North Seas
P22 - Mohn-Sverdrup Center CONMAN HYCOM (MSC-CONMAN)
Domain
The model covers the North Sea and Norwegian Sea with 4 km resolution (conformal mapping grid). Approximately from 50N to 68N and from 5W to 10E.
Objectives
Real-time monitoring and prediction system, hindcast studies, research.
The objective is to forecast the currents in the North Sea and Norwegian Sea, in particular at the Ormen Lange field, and to compare HYCOM to POM and ROMS models operated at met.no.
Customers:
Research, oil & gas industry (Norwegian Drilling Programme, NDP), Meteorological agencies (met.no). society at large.
Funding aspects:
This project has been set up by the CONMAN project funded by NDP. It is further supported by the Franco-Norwegian Foundation project PRECOC.
Downscaling strategy
One-way and off-line nesting offer sufficient flexibility for operating the nested model. This is a 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 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 North Atlantic Water inflow needs to be correctly represented. High quality lateral boundary conditions of ocean parameter are absolutely vital. |
| Strategy for validation of boundary conditions? | The incoming fluxes, kinetic energy 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. The frequency of nesting files is 6-hours. Tides are included. |
| Through which Modelling/Assimilation Center? | TOPAZ is provided by the Mohn-Sverdrup Center at the Nansen Center, Bergen. |
Project status
The forecasts are running daily since 15th December 2005. A workshop has been held with 7 oil companies at met.no (1st Feb. 2006). A hindcast study for the years 2004-2006 is ongoing.
(Last Updated: 17-01-2008)