European Marine Core Service Mediterranean Monitoring and Forecasting Centre (MFC): manuale d'uso del Mediterranean Forecasting System (Med-MFC-currents)

Dal 2000 il gruppo di oceanografia operativa dell’INGV ha sviluppato e mantenuto un sistema di previsioni marine per il Mar Mediterraneo (Mediterranean Forecasting System - MFS). Il sistema è stato sviluppato grazie a differenti progetti europei che si sono succeduti a partire dal 1999 ad oggi quali MFSPP (Mediterranan ocean Forecasting System Pilot Project), MFSTEP (Mediterranan ocean Forecasting System Toward Environmental Predictions), MERSEA (Marine EnviRonmnet and Security for the European Area) , BOSS4GMES (Building Operational Sustainable services for GMES) e MyOcean. Il sistema produce previsioni oceanografiche a breve termine (dieci giorni) per i campi di temperatura, salinità, corrente ed elevazione della superficie libera del mare. Nella fase iniziale di sviluppo del sistema di previsione il ciclo di produzione era settimanale (Pinardi et al. 2003), da settembre 2005 invece il sistema è giornaliero, cioè ogni giorno vengono prodotte le previsioni per i successivi dieci giorni. (Tonani et al. 2008, Dombrowsky et. al 2009). L’intero sistema previsionale MFS sfrutta come risorse di calcolo i super calcolatori vettoriali NEC in dotazione al Gruppo di Oceanografia Operativa dell’INGV di Bologna. Le procedure girano eventualmente in parallelo sulle due macchine, una in modalità operativa e l’altra in modalità backup in modo da garantire la produzione anche in caso di eventuali malfunzionamenti di uno dei due calcolatori. I prodotti vengono disseminati tramite un server ftp (mfs.bo.ingv.it) e thredds. Tutte le procedure funzionano in maniera completamente automatica e l’intervento dell’operatore è necessario solo in caso di problemi e/o malfunzionamenti. Scopo di questo manuale è quello di fornire un’utile guida alla comprensione dei vari anelli che costituiscono la catena di produzione della previsioni giornaliere a scala di bacino del Mar Mediterraneo e la disseminazione dei suoi prodotti verso l’esterno. Questo manuale e’ una versione aggiornata e ampliata del Rapporto Tecnico 83 del 2008

Coupling hydrodynamic and wave models: first step and sensitivity experiments in the Mediterranean Sea

This work describes the first step towards a fully coupled modelling system composed of an ocean circulation and a wind wave model. Sensitivity experiments are presented for the Mediterranean Sea where the hydrodynamic model NEMO is coupled with the third-generation wave model WaveWatchIII (WW3). Both models are implemented at 1/16° horizontal resolution and are forced by ECMWF 1/4° horizontal resolution atmospheric fields. The models are two-way coupled at hourly intervals exchanging the following fields: sea surface currents and temperature are transferred from NEMO to WW3 by modifying the mean momentum transfer of waves and the wind speed stability parameter, respectively. The neutral drag coefficient computed by WW3 is then passed to NEMO, which computes the surface stress. Five-year (2009–2013) numerical experiments were carried out in both uncoupled and coupled mode. In order to validate the modelling system, numerical results were compared with coastal and drifting buoys and remote sensing data. The results show that the coupling of currents with waves improves the representation of the wave spectrum. However, the wave-induced drag coefficient shows only minor improvements in NEMO circulation fields, such as temperature, salinity, and currents

MyOcean Scientific Validation Report (ScVR) for WP9 – Med-MFC

This report was written for MyOcean ProjectPublished4.6. Oceanografia operativa per la valutazione dei rischi in aree marinereserve

The Mediterranean analysis and forecasting physical system for the Copernicus Marine Service: description and skill assessment

The Mediterranean Analysis and Forecasting System is a numerical ocean prediction system that operationally produces analyses and 10 days forecasts of the main physical parameters for the entire Mediterranean Sea and its Atlantic Ocean adjacent areas. The system is composed by the hydrodynamic model NEMO (Nucleus for European Modelling of the Ocean) 2-way coupled with the third-generation wave model WW3 (WaveWatchIII) and forced by ECMWF (European Centre for Medium-range Weather Forecasts) atmospheric fields. The forecast initial conditions are produced by a 3D variational data assimilation system which considers a daily assimilation cycle of Sea Level Anomaly, vertical profiles of Temperature and Salinity from ARGO and ship CTDs and heat flux corrections with satellite SST. The system has been recently upgraded in the framework of the Copernicus Marine Environment Monitoring Service (CMEMS) by increasing the grid resolution from 1/16 to 1/24 degree in the horizontal, thus becoming fully mesoscale resolving and from 72 to 141 vertical levels, by increasing the number of fresh water river inputs and by updating the data assimilation scheme. The model has a non-linear explicit free surface and the forecast is forced by surface pressure, interactive heat, momentum and water fluxes at the air-sea interface. The focus of this work is to present the latest modeling system upgrades and the related improvements achieved by showing the model skill assessment including comparison with independent (insitu coastal moorings) and quasi-independent (insitu vertical profiles and satellite) datasets.PublishedHalifax, Nova Scotia, Canada4A. Oceanografia e clim

Last improvements in the data assimilation scheme for the Mediterranean Analysis and Forecast system of the Copernicus Marine Service

The Mediterranean Forecasting System (MFS) is a numerical ocean prediction system that produces analyses, reanalyses and short term forecasts for the entire Mediterranean Sea and its Atlantic Ocean adjacent areas. The system is now part of the Copernicus Marine Environment Monitoring Service (CMEMS) providing regular and systematic information about the physical state and dynamics of the Mediterranean Sea through the Med-MFC (Mediterranean Monitoring and Forecasting Center). MFS has been implemented in the Mediterranean Sea with 1/16o horizontal resolution and 72 vertical levels and is composed by the hydrodynamic model NEMO (Nucleus for European Modelling of the Ocean) 2-way online coupled with the third generation wave model WaveWatchIII (Clementi et al., 2017a) and forced by ECMWF atmospheric fields at 1/8° horizontal resolution. The model solutions are corrected by the data assimilation system (3D variational scheme, Dobricic and Pinardi, 2008) with a daily assimilation cycle of along track satellite Sea Level Anomaly (SLA) and vertical profiles of Temperature and Salinity from ARGO and gliders. In this study we present a new estimate of the background error covariance matrix with vertical Empirical Orthogonal Functions (EOFs) that are defined at each grid point of the model domain in order to better account for the error covariance between temperature and salinity in the shelf and open ocean areas. Moreover the Observational error covariance matrix is z-dependent and varies in each month. This new dataset has been tested and validated for more than 2 years against a background error correlation matrix varying only seasonally and in thirteen sub-regions of the Mediterranean Sea (Dobricic et al. 2005).PublishedBergen, Norway3SR. AMBIENTE - Servizi e ricerca per la Societ

Last improvements in the data assimilation scheme for the Mediterranean Analysis and Forecast system of the Copernicus Marine Service

The Mediterranean Forecasting System (MFS) is a numerical ocean prediction system that produces analyses, reanalyses and short term forecasts for the entire Mediterranean Sea and its Atlantic Ocean adjacent areas. The system is now part of the Copernicus Marine Environment Monitoring Service (CMEMS) providing regular and systematic information about the physical state and dynamics of the Mediterranean Sea through the Med-MFC (Mediterranean Monitoring and Forecasting Center). MFS has been implemented in the Mediterranean Sea with 1/16o horizontal resolution and 72 vertical levels and is composed by the hydrodynamic model NEMO (Nucleus for European Modelling of the Ocean) 2-way online coupled with the third generation wave model WW3 (WaveWatchIII) and forced by ECMWF atmospheric fields at 1/8o horizontal resolution. The model solutions are corrected by the data assimilation system (3D variational-3Dvar scheme adapted to the oceanic assimilation problem, Dobricic and Pinardi, 2008) with a daily assimilation cycle of satellite Sea Level Anomaly (SLA) and vertical profiles of Temperature and Salinity. In this study we present a new estimate the of the background error covariance matrix with vertical Empirical Orthogonal Functions (EOFs) that are defined at each grid point of the model domain in order to better account for the error covariance between temperature and salinity in the shelf and open ocean areas. Moreover the Error covariance matrix is z-dependent and varies in each month. This new dataset has been tested and validated for more than 2 years against a background error correlation matrix varying only seasonally and in thirteen sub-regions of the Mediterranean Sea. Latest developments include the implementation of an upgraded 3Dvar (Storto et al. 2012) for a high-resolution model, 1/24o in the horizontal and 141 vertical levelsPublishedBergen, Norway3SR. AMBIENTE - Servizi e ricerca per la Societ

Mediterranean Sea Analysis and Forecast (CMEMS MED-Currents 2016-2019)

Copernicus Marine Environment Monitoring ServicePublished4A. Oceanografia e clim

Mediterranean Sea Analysis and Forecast (CMEMS MED-Currents 2016-2019)

INGVPublished4A. Oceanografia e clim

A 1/24 degree resolution Mediterranean analysis and forecast modeling system for the Copernicus Marine Environment Monitoring Service

The Mediterranean Forecasting System (MFS) is a numerical ocean prediction system that operationally produces analyses, reanalyses and short-term forecasts of the main physical parameters for the entire Mediterranean Sea and its Atlantic Ocean adjacent areas. This work is specifically focused on the description and evaluation of the analysis and forecast modeling system that covers the analysis of the current situation and produces daily updates of the following 10 days forecast. The system has been recently upgraded in the framework of the Copernicus Marine Environment Monitoring Service (CMEMS) by increasing the grid resolution from 1/16o to 1/24o in the horizontal and from 72 to 141 vertical levels, by increasing the number of fresh water river inputs and by updating the data assimilation scheme. The model has a non-linear explicit free surface and it is forced by surface pressure, interactive heat, momentum and water fluxes at the air-sea interface. In order to validate the modeling system and to estimate the accuracy of the model products, a quality assessment is regularly performed including both pre-operational qualification and near real time (NRT) validation procedures. Pre-operational qualification activities focus on testing the improvements of the quality of the new system with respect to the previous version and relies on past simulation and historical data, while NRT validation activities aim at routinely and on-line providing the skill assessment of the model analysis and forecasts and relies on the NRT available observations. The focus of this work is to present the new operational modeling system and the skill assessment including comparison with independent (insitu coastal moorings) and quasi-independent (insitu vertical profiles and satellite) datasets.PublishedBergen, Norway3SR. AMBIENTE - Servizi e ricerca per la Societ

A 1/24° resolution Mediterranean physical analysis and forecasting system for the Copernicus Marine Environment Monitoring Service

This study describes a new model implementation for the Mediterranean Sea that has been achieved in the framework of the Copernicus Marine Environment Monitoring Service (CMEMS). The numerical ocean prediction system, that operationally produces analyses and forecasts of the main physical parameters for the entire Mediterranean Sea and its Atlantic Ocean adjacent areas, has been upgraded by increasing the grid resolution from 1/16o to 1/24o in the horizontal and from 72 to 141 unevenly spaced vertical levels, by increasing the number of fresh water river inputs and by updating the data assimilation scheme. The model has a non-linear explicit free surface and it is forced by surface pressure, interactive heat, momentum and water fluxes at the airsea interface. The focus of this work is to present the new modelling system which will become operational in the near future and the validation assessment including the comparison with an independent non assimilated dataset (coastal moorings) and quasi-independent (in situ vertical profiles and satellite) datasets. The results show that the higher resolution model is capable of representing most of the variability of the general circulation in the Mediterranean Sea, however some improvements need to be implemented in order to enhance the model ability in reproducing specific hydrodynamic features particularly the Sea Level Anomaly.PublishedBergen, Norway3SR. AMBIENTE - Servizi e ricerca per la Societ