Op Mer MH Por v1

NOTE: this article has been discontinued and is no longer maintained

a, b, c, d and M nested domains, corresponding respectively to S, C, N, WI and M-O.

Operational model of the Portuguese coast using MOHID forced with Mercator and MM5 from 20060607 to 20070607. The baseline data come from the ETOPO2 bathymetry. The external models data come from Mercator-Océan, from JDD_MM5 and from Fes2004 or Fes95. There are 2 levels of nested domains:

1. P - Western Iberia coastal domain
   1. N - North Portugal domain
   2. C - Estremadura domain (Centre)
   3. S - Algarve domain (South)

And there are 3 external models:

1. M-O - the Mercator solution
2. MM5 - the JDD_MM5 atmospheric solution
3. WI - a barotropic tidal solution using MOHID and the Fes2004 or Fes95 solution

The nested domain have the same baseline information for the bathymetry (from ETOPO2) and the transition is extremely smooth. Thus, the first level domain acts as a buffer for the Mercator data to pass to the lower level and inconsistent forcing, rising from inconsistent bathymetries, is avoided.

P

Borders

Surface

• MM5 winds are interpolated to the WI grid.
• Radiation and cloud coverage ???
• Evaporation due to radiation and wind action ???
• Pluviosity ???

OBC

• M-Os U, V, S, T are relaxed with a Flow Relaxation Scheme (FRS) to the WI border.
• $\eta$ from 2D WI is interpolated to the WI border ???
• $\eta$ is radiated with a Flather radiation condition.
• Sponge layer is used (High viscosity near the open boundaries).

Land

• River discharges ???

Bottom

• Typical constant rugosity is used.

Assimilation

• S and T are assimilated from the M-O solution, previously interpolated to the WI grid.
• U and V are assimilated from the M-O solution, previously interpolated to the WI grid..

Assimilations are performed using a simple relaxation condition: $(\Phi - \Phi^{ext})_{,\,t} = - (\Phi-\Phi^{ext})/\tau$.

Initialization and Spin-up

• S and T are interpolated to the WI grid from the M-O solution.
• U and V are initialized with geostrophic velocities.
• $\eta$ is initialized to a constant reference level.
• During the warm up sequence (7 days) there is a slow connection of the forces ???
• The operational model runs for 7 days in analyzed and prevision mode, then calculus continuation is made for the following seven days using the new M-O and MM5 datasets, and so on...

Within a month, the spin-up phase has ended and the system is operational. The system stays operational, provided that the M-O and MM5 solutions keep feeding it.