TY - JOUR
T1 - The Navy's Earth System Prediction Capability
T2 - A New Global Coupled Atmosphere-Ocean-Sea Ice Prediction System Designed for Daily to Subseasonal Forecasting
AU - Barton, Neil
AU - Metzger, E. Joseph
AU - Reynolds, Carolyn A.
AU - Ruston, Benjamin
AU - Rowley, Clark
AU - Smedstad, Ole Martin
AU - Ridout, James A.
AU - Wallcraft, Alan
AU - Frolov, Sergey
AU - Hogan, Patrick
AU - Janiga, Matthew A.
AU - Shriver, Jay F.
AU - McLay, Justin
AU - Thoppil, Prasad
AU - Huang, Andrew
AU - Crawford, William
AU - Whitcomb, Timothy
AU - Bishop, Craig H.
AU - Zamudio, Luis
AU - Phelps, Michael
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
©2020. The Authors. This article has been contributed to by US Government employees and their work is in the public domain in the USA.
PY - 2021/4
Y1 - 2021/4
N2 - This paper describes the new global Navy Earth System Prediction Capability (Navy-ESPC) coupled atmosphere-ocean-sea ice prediction system developed at the Naval Research Laboratory (NRL) for operational forecasting for timescales of days to the subseasonal. Two configurations of the system are validated: (1) a low-resolution 16-member ensemble system and (2) a high-resolution deterministic system. The Navy-ESPC ensemble system became operational in August 2020, and this is the first time the NRL operational partner, Fleet Numerical Meteorology and Oceanography Center, will provide global coupled atmosphere-ocean-sea ice forecasts, with atmospheric forecasts extending past 16 days, and ocean and sea ice ensemble forecasts. A unique aspect of the Navy-ESPC is that the global ocean model is eddy resolving at 1/12° in the ensemble and at 1/25° in the deterministic configurations. The component models are current Navy operational systems: NAVy Global Environmental Model (NAVGEM) for the atmosphere, HYbrid Coordinate Ocean Model (HYCOM) for the ocean, and Community Ice CodE (CICE) for the sea ice. Physics updates to improve the simulation of equatorial phenomena, particularly the Madden-Julian Oscillation (MJO), were introduced into NAVGEM. The low-resolution ensemble configuration and high-resolution deterministic configuration are evaluated based on analyses and forecasts from January 2017 to January 2018. Navy-ESPC ensemble forecast skill for large-scale atmospheric phenomena, such as the MJO, North Atlantic Oscillation (NAO), Antarctic Oscillation (AAO), and other indices, is comparable to that of other numerical weather prediction (NWP) centers. Ensemble forecasts of ocean sea surface temperatures perform better than climatology in the tropics and midlatitudes out to 60 days. In addition, the Navy-ESPC Pan-Arctic and Pan-Antarctic sea ice extent predictions perform better than climatology out to about 45 days, although the skill is dependent on season.
AB - This paper describes the new global Navy Earth System Prediction Capability (Navy-ESPC) coupled atmosphere-ocean-sea ice prediction system developed at the Naval Research Laboratory (NRL) for operational forecasting for timescales of days to the subseasonal. Two configurations of the system are validated: (1) a low-resolution 16-member ensemble system and (2) a high-resolution deterministic system. The Navy-ESPC ensemble system became operational in August 2020, and this is the first time the NRL operational partner, Fleet Numerical Meteorology and Oceanography Center, will provide global coupled atmosphere-ocean-sea ice forecasts, with atmospheric forecasts extending past 16 days, and ocean and sea ice ensemble forecasts. A unique aspect of the Navy-ESPC is that the global ocean model is eddy resolving at 1/12° in the ensemble and at 1/25° in the deterministic configurations. The component models are current Navy operational systems: NAVy Global Environmental Model (NAVGEM) for the atmosphere, HYbrid Coordinate Ocean Model (HYCOM) for the ocean, and Community Ice CodE (CICE) for the sea ice. Physics updates to improve the simulation of equatorial phenomena, particularly the Madden-Julian Oscillation (MJO), were introduced into NAVGEM. The low-resolution ensemble configuration and high-resolution deterministic configuration are evaluated based on analyses and forecasts from January 2017 to January 2018. Navy-ESPC ensemble forecast skill for large-scale atmospheric phenomena, such as the MJO, North Atlantic Oscillation (NAO), Antarctic Oscillation (AAO), and other indices, is comparable to that of other numerical weather prediction (NWP) centers. Ensemble forecasts of ocean sea surface temperatures perform better than climatology in the tropics and midlatitudes out to 60 days. In addition, the Navy-ESPC Pan-Arctic and Pan-Antarctic sea ice extent predictions perform better than climatology out to about 45 days, although the skill is dependent on season.
KW - MJO
KW - coupled modeling
KW - data assimilation
KW - ensembles
KW - subseasonal forecasting
UR - https://www.scopus.com/pages/publications/85104949334
U2 - 10.1029/2020EA001199
DO - 10.1029/2020EA001199
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85104949334
SN - 2333-5084
VL - 8
JO - Earth and Space Science
JF - Earth and Space Science
IS - 4
M1 - e2020EA001199
ER -