HR: 0800h
AN: OS41B-0479    [Abstracts]
TI: Lessons Learned With Nowcast/Forecast Systems for Prince William Sound,Alaska (PWS/NFS and EPWS/NFS)
AU: * Bang, I
EM: ibang@rsmas.miami.edu
AF: OPEL/AMP/RSMAS/Univ.of Miami, 4600 Rickenbacker Cswy., Miami, FL 33149-1098 United States
AU: Mooers, C N
EM: cmooers@rsmas.miami.edu
AF: OPEL/AMP/RSMAS/Univ.of Miami, 4600 Rickenbacker Cswy., Miami, FL 33149-1098 United States
AU: Wu, X
EM: xwu@rsmas.miami.edu
AF: OPEL/AMP/RSMAS/Univ.of Miami, 4600 Rickenbacker Cswy., Miami, FL 33149-1098 United States
AB: As part of the OSRI (Oil Spill Recovery Institute, Cordova, Alaska) Program, the Princeton Ocean Model (POM) has been implemented on a Cartesian grid (ca. 1.1 km resolution) and in sigma coordinates (15 to 21 levels, with concentrations nearsurface and nearbottom), for Prince William Sound (PWS) per se which is called PWS-POM, and for an extended domain, EPWS, that includes the Alaska Shelf offshore PWS as well as PWS per se, which is called EPWS-POM. These model implementations are run either offline for process and sensitivity studies or online as real-time nowcast/forecast systems, known as PWS/NFS and EPWS/NFS, respectively. The forcing includes synoptic winds from the RAMS mesoscale meteorological prediction system operated at the Univ. of Alsaka Anchorage, climatological monthly surface heating/cooling, climatological snowmelt runoff, eight tidal constituents, and throughflow forcing at the two major ports of PWS, Hinchinbrook Entrance (HE) and Montague Strait (MS), due to the Alaska Coastal Current and the nearby Copper River discharge. The real-time observing system elements consist of two NOS/CO-OPS/NWLON tide gauges (at Valdez and Cordova) and three NWS/NDBC meteorological buoys and three NWS/NDBC/C-MAN meteorological stations supporting the tanker route between Valdez and HE, which are invaluable for model verification though they only observe a limited number of nearsurface variables. In contrast, time-depth series from occasional multi-month deployments of bottom-mounted ADCPs and thermistor arrays have proven invaluable for model validation. Similarly, occasional deployments of upper ocean drifters have provided insights that challenge conventional wisdom. Strong seasonality in the forcing and stratification lead to complex and variable baroclinic flows and counterflows that are intermittently under topographic control. The most uncertain set of forcing functions is associated with the throughflow, which has led to exploration of the use of EPWS-POM as an alternative to PWS-POM, and in preparation for the availability of basin scale fields for open boundary conditions from an operational model
UR: http://pws-nfs-osri.rsmas.miami.edu/
DE: 4512 Currents
DE: 4516 Eastern boundary currents
DE: 4520 Eddies and mesoscale processes
DE: 4528 Fronts and jets
SC: Ocean Sciences [OS]
MN: 2004 AGU Fall Meeting