Observing system experiments have been carried out with two operational ocean data assimilation systems to assess the impact of assimilating satellite sea surface salinity (SSS) data. The SSS data reduces the errors in tropical Pacific salinity by 4% and 8% in the Met Office and Mercator Ocean systems respectively with an impact down to about 50 m depth on average. Salinity errors were reduced by up

For 30+ years, submarine cable voltage measurements have been a critical measurement system used to produce a highly valuable time series of daily Florida Current volume transport at 27°N in the Florida Straits. However, the high cost associated with replacing the measurement system, should the existing telecommunications cable break, represents a significant vulnerability to the continuation of this

Present study aims at the development of the Indian Ocean wave forecasting system for wind waves using WAVEWATCH-III wave model and a detailed validation of the same to ensure the model reliability for operational use. WAVEWATCH-III model has a multi-grid approach with resolution varying from 100 km (global grid) to 4 km (coastal grid), and is driven by the 10 m wind, produced by the ECMWF meteorological

The operational Australian Bluelink ocean forecast system is used to transform physical oceanographic observations into coherent analyses and predictions. These analyses and predictions form the basis for information services about the marine environment and its ecosystem, and can provide boundary data for weather predictions. Bluelink information services are available to marine industries (e.g. commercial

ABSTRACT The Ocean Observatories Initiative (OOI) of the National Science Foundation in the USA includes a coastal observatory called the OOI Pioneer Array, which is focused on understanding shelf/slope exchange processes. The OOI Pioneer Array has been designed and constructed and is currently in operation. In order to fully understand the design principles and constraints, we first describe the basic

SAMOA (Sistema de Apoyo Meteorológico y Oceanográfico de la Autoridad Portuaria) is the latest initiative of Puertos del Estado, the Spanish Public State Port Agency, to enhance the delivery of user-customised operational met-ocean information to aid Spanish Port Authorities making harbour safety, environmental management and operational decisions. This initiative provides high-resolution coastal operational

WAM, SWAN and WAVEWATCH III® were implemented to the Finnish archipelago with a 0.1 nmi grid. A comparison with coastal wave buoy observations showed that the models agreed on the significant wave height, with biases and root-mean-square-errors (RMSE) differing at most 0.06 m. In a general sense, WAM propagated most long wave energy into the archipelago, while SWAN generated the highest local waves

Key elements of a Feature-oriented regional modelling system (FORMS) in the Western Equatorial Atlantic (1°–11°S) are developed for possible application in an operational forecast system as well as in process-oriented studies. This equatorial margin region is dominated by the northwestward flowing near surface North Brazil Undercurrent (NBUC) and the southeastward Deep Western Boundary Current (DWBC)

The available wind datasets can be exploited to support the setup of accurate wave models, able to reproduce and forecast extreme event scenarios. It is of utmost importance in the actual context of climate change. This study focuses on evaluating the performance of a numerical wave model, using different wind datasets, helping to create a tool to assess coastal risks, and further on to support the

An environmental isotope study was conducted to assess the cause for the freshening of seawater observed in the Mahim Bay, Mumbai, India after a storm event during the southwest monsoon period. Water samples were collected from the various locations of the coastal water and the suspected inland water sources such as rain, river and groundwater and analysed for major ion species and stable isotopes

Based on the subsurface mooring observations at 159°59′E, 14°40′N from July 2014 to May 2016, the vertical structure and variability of the North Equatorial Current/Undercurrent (NEC/NEUC) are investigated. The NEC flows westward stably from the sea surface down to 500 m and is strongest with the magnitude of approximately 40 cm/s in January 2016, while in several months, the eastward current occurs

The objective of the present study is to give a contribution to the extreme wave climate assessment in the Black Sea, as studies of extreme storm waves are of great interest for coastal protection and maritime traffic. High resolution wind wave data sets are used to investigate trends and variability of the characteristics of extreme storm waves. Two different methodologies (Eulerian and Lagrangean)

ABSTRACT The sinking of the cargo ship SS El Faro is investigated by providing a comprehensive analysis of the wind, wave and ocean currents associated with Hurricane Joaquin. Using state-of-the-art reanalyses the event is assessed in high resolution and from a long-term climate perspective. The last known location of the SS El Faro was in the north-west eye-wall of Hurricane Joaquin when it was a

Cyclone Hudhud originated in the Andaman Sea on 6 October 2014. Later, it intensified into a cyclonic storm on 8 October and eventually made landfall at Visakhapatnam on 12 October as a very severe cyclonic storm. It was intensified off of Visakhapatnam by high stratified waters with a thick barrier layer that held significant heat content. In this study, we analysed the data along the cyclone track

In this study, the collocation method accompanied with variance component estimation is used for least square adjustment of crossover observations in order to determine the effects of radial errors on the observations of satellite altimetry. The collocation is used for time series analysis of sea surface height observations both for predicting the possible missing observations in each cycle, and for

Predictions of drift trajectories based on four drift models were compared with observations from drifting buoys deployed in 2014 and 2015 in the Estuary and Gulf of St. Lawrence to show the impact of the current vertical shear on the surface drift predictions. Input of ocean currents and winds are obtained from ISMER's 5 km resolution ocean circulation model and from the Canadian Regional Deterministic

A new conceptual framework, based on ocean bio-physical observations from different satellites, has been proposed to track fishing ground parameters to identify Potential Fishing Zones (PFZ) in the Bay of Bengal (BoB). The proposed technique also attempts to provide a short-term forecast based on feature propagation, even under cloudy conditions. The current study has been carried out to understand

The Regional Ocean Modelling System (ROMS) is utilised to estimate the cyclone-induced mixing and cooling associated with two tropical cyclones, namely Phet and Nilofar over the Arabian Sea (AS). Numerical experiments were carried out with realistic and idealistic oceanic conditions to assess the impact of oceanic initial condition and stratification on the interaction of upper ocean with the tropical

The existence of the Mid-Mediterranean Jet (MMJ) as part of the pathway of the Atlantic Water (AW) in Eastern Mediterranean is still debated and the reasons for its formation are unknown. The MMJ was investigated over the 2000–2015 summers using thermal and altimetry satellite data and ‘in situ’ casts. In the Levantine basin, the AW flowing along the Libyan-Egyptian coast splits into an along-shore

Among various factors influencing the ocean noise levels, shipping traffic radiated underwater noise levels were identified as the major contributors. The increase in ambient noise levels due to natural and anthropogenic sources threatens the marine species communication. India has a coastline of 7,516.6 Km with 12 major and ∼187 minor ports. The hydrophone system measured for 39 days helped in investigating

The iceberg hazard for the Grand Banks area to the east of Newfoundland varies dramatically from one year to the next. In some years no icebergs penetrate south of 48°N, while in others well over 1000 icebergs enter the main shipping lanes between Europe and NE North America. Advance knowledge of this seasonal hazard would have major implications for ship routing, as well as the resources required

Simulated ocean currents from ocean circulation models along with the surface winds are generally used to force an oil spill trajectory model. Ocean circulation is a key factor in determining the drift of the spilled marine pollutants. The simulations of the drift pattern of spilled oil, when forced by the ocean currents from two ocean models, are presented here. Merchant Vessel (MV) Rak sunk at 72

The Brazilian Oceanographic Modeling and Observation Network (REMO, acronym for ‘Rede de Modelagem e Observação Oceanográfica’ in Portuguese) has developed the REMO Ocean Data Assimilation System (RODAS). It is based on an Ensemble Optimal Interpolation scheme applied into the Hybrid Coordinate Ocean Model (HYCOM). This study aims to investigate the extended-range predictability of the HYCOM + RODAS

ABSTRACT Modelling the drift of marine debris in quasi-real time can be of societal relevance. One pertinent example is Malaysia Airlines flight MH370. The aircraft is assumed to have crashed in the Indian Ocean, leaving floating wreckage to drift on the surface. Some of these items were recovered around the western Indian Ocean. We use ocean currents simulated by an operational ocean model in conjunction

The structure and the temporal variability of modelled velocity fields at different depths are studied for the years 2002–2004 in the Northwestern Iberian Margin. The currents are simulated with the Regional Ocean Modeling System in a high resolution that is compatible with the input data from the HYbrid Coordinate Ocean Model reanalysis and the atmospheric forcing from the Climate Forecast System