Critical Analysis of Ocean Thermal Analysis Models in Operation at FNOC (Fleet Numerical Oceanography Center's).

摘要

The objectives of this research are firstly to obtain a description of the characteristics of the ocean thermal structure from a portion of the ocean (ca.37 degs N to 39 deg N; 124 degs W to 126 deg W) sampled during the three cruises comprising OPTOMA5 which took place in June and July 1983. (OPTOMA - Ocean Prediction Through Observations, Modeling, and Analysis, is a joint Harvard/NPS project 'intended to acquire field data to characterise synoptic scale eddies over a domain in the California Current off Northern California, and to 'set-up' an eddy-resolving, statistical/dynamical, limited domain, open boundary numerical ocean prediction model. The '5' indicates the fifth series of cruises of the project). Secondly, the analysed ocean thermal structure is to be used as a 'sea truth' by which to evaluate the accuracy of two real-time ocean thermal analysis systems presently in use at the Fleet Numerical Oceanography Center (FNOC), namely, the Expanded Ocean Thermal Structure (FCTS) analysis and the Thermodynamic Ocean Prediction System (TOPS)-Coupled EOTS (TEOTS) analysis. The final objective is to determine the operational significance of deviations in the modeled thermal structure from the 'sea truth' by utilizing the output from operational acoustic models to provide a quantitative measure of the effect of these thermal structure differences on acoustic propagation in the ocean. Two low-frequency, passive-acoustic models were used to provide a measure of the variability of acoustic energy propagation which could be expected from the acoustic models alone.