Wednesday 24 August 2005

P4
1050-1230 hours

265
Assimilated mesoscale ocean circulation in the GBR
Brassington, Gary¹, Oke, Peter²
1 Bureau Of Meteorology Research Centre, Melbourne, Vic, Australia
2 CSIRO Marine and Atmospheric Research, Hobart, Tasmania, Australia
Author email: g.brassington@bom.gov.au
The mesoscale ocean circulation and heat budget of the North Queensland continental shelf region are estimated during the period 1992-2004. An eddy-resolving ocean analysis of the Australian regional seas together with selected observations are examined for quality in the GBR region for use in studies of coral bleaching and tropical cyclone coupled dynamics. BLUElink is a joint initiative of the Bureau of Meteorology, CSIRO and Royal Australian Navy to develop Australia's operational ocean prediction system. The ocean model of this system is an implementation of the Modular Ocean Model version 4, Griffies et al., (2003) which has been optimised for an NEC SX6. The model uses a global grid with eddy-resolving (1/10°x1/10°) resolution in Australia's regional waters (90E-180E, 65S-15N) and 47 vertical levels with 10m resolution in the top 200m. BODAS (BLUElink Ocean Data Assimilation System) is an ensemble OI scheme that uses a forecast error covariance based on an ensemble of model anomalies. A 72-member set of anomalies is derived from a 9 year non-assimilated integration forced by ERA40 fluxes. BRAN (BLUElink ReANalysis) is a mesoscale ocean analysis using ERA40 and ECMWF forecasts and assimilates Altimeter, ARGO, CTD and XBT observations. BRAN is the first ocean analysis with eddy-resolving resolution in the Australian region and appears to exhibit sufficient skill to provide useful information for Australia's coastal oceans including the GBR region.

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