Dr Xinmei Huang¹, Charles  Sanders¹, Pavel Sakov¹, Gary Brassington¹, Helen  Beggs¹, Andy Taylor¹

¹Bureau of Meteorology, Australia

OceanMAPS (Ocean Model Analysis and Prediction System) has been operational in the Bureau of Meteorology since August 2007. It provides daily analyses and forecasts of ocean temperature, salinity, sea level and currents of up to 7 days lead time.

Near real time observations of temperature, salinity, sea level anomaly and sea surface temperature (SST) have been ingested into OceanMAPS for data assimilation. The satellite altimetry data are retrieved from the Radar Altimeter Database System (RADS). The SST data are supplied directly to the Bureau by the US Naval Oceanographic Office (NAVOCEANO), National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA). The temperature and salinity data come from in-situ profile observations.

The near real time observations are critical to the operational system. However, ocean observations can be delayed, and the full set of observation data is not available in real time for the operational system. This presentation describes the types of observational data used in OceanMAPS, how the system handles delays in the provision of observational data, and efforts to evaluate the impact on performance of OceanMAPS.

Biography:

Dr Xinmei Huang is an Oceans Numerical Modelling Scientist at the Bureau of Meteorology. She has a PhD degree from Murdoch University and has been working at the Bureau of Meteorology for over 20 years. She has worked on the implementation and maintenance of the operational OceanMAPS from the very first version up to most recent upgrade (v4.0i).