Improvements in the regional South China Sea Operational Oceanography Forecasting System (SCSOFSv2)

Xueming Zhu,Hui Wang,Yunfei Zhang,Shihe Ren,Ang Li,Ziqing Zu,Miaoyin Zhang

doi:10.5194/gmd-15-995-2022

Abstract

Abstract. The South China Sea Operational Oceanography Forecasting System (SCSOFS), constructed and operated by the National Marine Environmental Forecasting Center of China, has been providing daily updated hydrodynamic forecasting in the South China Sea (SCS) for the next 5 d since 2013. This paper presents recent comprehensive updates to the configurations of the physical model and data assimilation scheme in order to improve the forecasting skill of the SCSOFS. This paper highlights three of the most sensitive updates: the sea surface atmospheric forcing method, the discrete tracer advection scheme, and a modification of the data assimilation scheme. Intercomparison and accuracy assessment among the five sub-versions were performed during the entire upgrading process using the OceanPredict Intercomparison and Validation Task Team Class 4 metrics. The results indicate that remarkable improvements have been made to the SCSOFSv2 with respect to the original version (known as SCSOFSv1). The domain-averaged monthly mean root-mean-square errors of the sea surface temperature and sea level anomaly have decreased from 1.21 to 0.52 ∘C and from 21.6 to 8.5 cm, respectively.

Highlights

The South China Sea (SCS) is located between 2◦30 S– 23◦30 N and 99◦10 –121◦50 E
We elaborate upon the solutions to such problems that are applied in SCSOFSv2 that were not discussed in Sect
Compared with the results of the BulkFormula, the performance of the model skill based on the annual mean sea surface temperature (SST) rootmean-square error (RMSE) is improved by about 23 % due to the usage of the new combination scheme in SCSOFSv2

Summary

Introduction

The South China Sea (SCS) is located between 2◦30 S– 23◦30 N and 99◦10 –121◦50 E. It is a semi-closed marginal sea and has the largest area and deepest depths in the western Pacific. It is connected to the East China Sea by the Taiwan Strait to the northeast, to the northern Pacific Ocean by the Luzon Strait to the east, and to the Java Sea by the Karimata Strait to the south. It has always been a challenge to simulate or reproduce the ocean circulations and to forecast the future oceanic status using the Operational Oceanography Forecasting System (OOFS)

Objectives

Methods

Findings

Conclusion