question regarding ESPC-D V02's nearshore performance

[Ayumi Fujisaki-Manome]

Dear community, 

Has anyone evaluated ESPC-D V02's performance in simulating surface current (tidal and sub-tidal) and elevation near the coasts, especially over Alaska's coasts? 

I am looking for an ocean dataset that include tidal information in surface current and elevation for my high-res sea ice simulations for Alaska's coasts. Any inputs will be appreciated. 

Thank you!!

Ayumi  

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Ayumi Fujisaki-Manome (she/her/hers)
Associate Research Scientist
Cooperative Institute for Great Lakes Research (CIGLR), School for Environment and Sustainability (SEAS)
Climate & Space Sciences and Engineering (CLASP)
University of Michigan

[Alan Wallcraft]

In general, a global model isn't likely to have much accuracy in coastal regions.  This is because:

a) 0.04 degree resolution is good for the globe but not high for a coastal model

b) The coastline is at the correct location, but all areas shallower than 5 m are set to 5 m depth.

c) The atmospheric model (NAVGEM T681, or about 19 km) is relatively low resolution, particularly for representing the land sea interface.

d) The tides are more accurate in deep water than in shallow

There are movies of layer 1 currents for GOFS 3.1 (0.08 degree resolution. no tides) at https://www7320.nrlssc.navy.mil/GLBhycomcice1-12/gulfak.html

ESPC-D-V02 is likely to do better, but I don't know how much better.

Zoom into you region of interest in  031-tpxo10a_nssh_rms_global.pdf to see how the tides compare to TPXO10-atlas which I think is relatively accurate in shallow regions.

For tides, the hourly fields are best and the "ice" fields include SST,SSS,SSU,SSV with the currents being the average over the top 2 m.

Alan.

[Ayumi Manome]

Thank you, Alan. This is very helpful. I was not aware that the depth in coastal regions are floored at 5m and it's good to know. Also thank you for sharing the comparison with TPXO. 

Ayumi