Abstract
The oceanography sub-initiative of Canada’s Oceans Protection Plan was tasked to develop high-resolution nearshore ocean models for enhanced marine safety and emergency response, fitting into the multi-scale, multi-level nested operational ocean forecasting systems. For decision making on eventual 24/7 operational support, two ocean models (a structured grid model, NEMO (Nucleus for European Modelling of the Ocean); and an unstructured grid model, FVCOM (Finite Volume Coastal Ocean Model), were evaluated. The evaluation process includes the selection of the study area, the requirements for model setup, and the evaluation metrics. The chosen study area, Saint John Harbour in the Bay of Fundy, features strong tides, significant river runoff and a narrow tidal-river channel. Both models were configured with the same sources of bathymetry and forcing data. FVCOM achieved 50-100 m horizontal resolution in the inner harbour and included wetting/drying. NEMO achieved 100 m resolution in the harbour with a three-level one-way nesting configuration. Statistical metrics showed that one-year simulations with both models achieved comparable accuracies against the observed tidal and non-tidal water levels and currents, temperature and salinity, and the trajectories of surface drifters, but the computational cost of FVCOM was significantly less than that of NEMO.
Highlights
In 2016, Canada launched the CAD 1.5 billion Ocean Protection Plan (OPP) [1] to protect the world’s longest coastline and support cleaner, healthier and safer waters
The nearshore models will eventually fit into the multi-scale, multi-level nested operational ocean-forecasting systems of the Government of Canada, through the collaborative development by Environment and Climate Change Canada (ECCC) and DFO under the Canadian Operational Network of Coupled Environmental Prediction Systems (CONCEPTS) [2] Memorandum of Understanding
DFO and ECCC jointly developed an evaluation process, summarized here, to objectively compare both the predictive accuracy of the key parameters required for OPP applications, and the efficiency in terms of computational cost, between NEMO and FVCOM
Summary
In 2016, Canada launched the CAD 1.5 billion Ocean Protection Plan (OPP) [1] to protect the world’s longest coastline and support cleaner, healthier and safer waters. NEMO is a finite difference model that runs on structured horizontal grids It was first developed for global and basin-scale applications, and subsequently for coastal applications. Under a previous DFO project, FVCOM was used to develop port scale models for five of the six OPP pilot ports, including a baroclinic configuration for the Port of Saint John (without atmospheric forcing). Huang et al [19] compared FVCOM with a structured grid model, ROMS (the Regional Ocean Modelling System), [20] but the study focused on idealized test cases and used barotropic configurations only. DFO and ECCC jointly developed an evaluation process, summarized here, to objectively compare both the predictive accuracy of the key parameters required for OPP applications, and the efficiency in terms of computational cost, between NEMO and FVCOM. The proposed process and metrics can be generalized and modified to evaluate the configurations developed for other regions, and with models other than NEMO and FVCOM, for research and operations
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