Mediterranean Ocean Analyses/Forecasts-MFS_daily_sys1

INGV-MED-MFS-FOR

Ocean forecast

Gridded (analysis)

General description : The processed fields are available as daily means of analyses and forecasts. The Analyses fields produced by the MFS Ocean General Circulation Model with an optimal interpolation scheme for in situ and satellite observations forced by meteorological surface analysis fields. The Forecasts fields are produced by the MFS OGCM starting from an MFS Analysis forced by meteorological forecast surface fields.

Processing information : INGV has implemented the OPA code (Madec et al., 1998) in the Mediterranean Sea at 1/16° x 1/16° horizontal resolution and 72 unevenly spaced vertical levels. The assimilation system uses satellite data for Sea Level Anomaly, Sea Surface Temperature, and in situ temperature profiles from VOS observations and in situ temperature and salinity profiles by ARGO drifting buoys observations.The data assimilation scheme is the System for Ocean Forecast and Analysis(SOFA). It is a reduced order optimal interpolation scheme (DeMey and Benkiran, 2002) implemented in the Mediterranean (Demirov et al., 2003, Dobricic et al., 2005).The fields are available in GDT 1.3 and Coards conventions for the Netcdf data format.

Temporal characteristics: daily means.

Description of observation methods / instruments : Not Applicable

Quality/accuracy/calibration information : The quality of the bulletin is weekly assessed and based on :

• Human expertise
• Assimilation diagnostics and skill scores (rms misfit for SLA, rms of Temperature misfit with XBT and Argo, rms of Salinity misfit with Argo, weekly rms of Analyses and Forecasts for Temperature, weekly rms of Analyses and Forecasts for Salinity,)

• eastward_sea_water_velocity,m s-1,CF
• northward_sea_water_velocity,m s-1,CF
• sea_surface_height_above_geoid,m,CF
• sea_water_potential_temperature,K,CF
• sea_water_salinity,1e-3,CF
• surface_downward_eastward_stress,Pa,CF
• surface_downward_heat_flux_in_sea_water,W m-2,CF
• surface_downward_northward_stress,Pa,CF
• surface_net_downward_shortwave_flux,W m-2,CF
• surface_upward_water_flux,kg m-2 s-1,CF

Regional scale

1/16 degree

from 0 to -1000 meters.