doi:10.1016/j.csr.2007.11.004 
Copyright © 2007 Elsevier Ltd All rights reserved.
Benefit of nesting a regional model into a large-scale ocean model instead of climatology. Application to the West Florida Shelf
aUniversity of South Florida, College of Marine Science, 33701 St. Petersburg, FL, USA
Received 20 February 2007;
revised 5 October 2007;
accepted 9 November 2007.
Available online 21 November 2007.
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Abstract
The impact of open boundary conditions on the dynamics and accuracy of a regional West Florida Shelf model is addressed. A ROMS-based model nested in monthly climatological temperature and salinity and in the North Atlantic HYCOM model is implemented. The model results of these nesting implementations are compared to altimetry, in situ temperature time series, and ADCP and high-frequency (HF) radar currents. A significant improvement of the model results is found using the boundary conditions of the HYCOM model over the climatology. The ageostrophic nature of the LC is studied and the benefit using the velocity and surface elevation boundary conditions is shown.
Keywords: Nested model; Open boundary conditions; Shelf circulation; West Florida Shelf
Fig. 1. The West Florida Shelf. The dash-dotted line shows the open boundary of the WFS ROMS domain and isolines represent the depth of the model bathymetry (in m). The regions in green and blue delimited by the solid and dashed lines represent the coverage of Redington and Venice CODAR stations, respectively. The dots show the locations of in situ measurements used for validation along with their names.
Fig. 2. Mean sea surface height (in m) on April 2004 from the model (first three panels) and observations (lower right panel).
Fig. 3. Mean sea surface height (in m) on October 2004 from the model (first three panels) and observations (lower right panel).
Fig. 4. Time-averaged RMS difference between model currents at 100 m and the geostrophic currents based on the model pressure for experiment 3 (panel a) and time-averaged RMS different between experiment 2 and 3 (panel b).
Fig. 5. Observed temperature time series of station C12 at 1 m depth and temperature of the WFS ROMS nested in climatology (1st exp.), WFS ROMS nested in NAT HYCOM temperature and salinity (2nd exp.) and WFS ROMS fully nested in NAT HYCOM (3rd exp.). Dates indicate the first day of each month.
Fig. 6. Observed temperature time series of station C13 at 10 m depth and temperature of the WFS ROMS nested in climatology (1st exp.), WFS ROMS nested in NAT HYCOM temperature and salinity (2nd exp.) and WFS ROMS fully nested in NAT HYCOM (3rd exp.).
Fig. 7. Observed temperature time series of station C11 at 19 m depth and temperature of the WFS ROMS nested in climatology (1st exp.), WFS ROMS nested in NAT HYCOM temperature and salinity (2nd exp.) and WFS ROMS fully nested in NAT HYCOM (3rd exp.).
Fig. 8. Observed ADCP current time series (24-h low-pass filtered) of station C11 at 4 m depth and temperature of the WFS ROMS nested in climatology (1st exp.), WFS ROMS nested in NAT HYCOM temperature and salinity (2nd exp.) and WFS ROMS fully nested in NAT HYCOM (3rd exp.).
Fig. 9. Observed ADCP current time series (24-h low-pass filtered) of station C13 at 44 m depth and temperature of the WFS ROMS nested in climatology (1st exp.), WFS ROMS nested in NAT HYCOM temperature and salinity (2nd exp.) and WFS ROMS fully nested in NAT HYCOM (3rd exp.).
Fig. 10. M2 tidal amplitude (m/s) and phase (degrees) of the radial velocity at Redington Beach. The left panels show the results measured by CODAR and to the right are the results of the ADCIRC tidal model.
Fig. 11. The RMS difference (in m/s) between observed CODAR currents at Redington Beach station and radial currents of the WFS ROMS nested in climatology (1st exp.), WFS ROMS nested in NAT HYCOM temperature and salinity (2nd exp.) and WFS ROMS fully nested in NAT HYCOM (3rd exp.).
Fig. 12. The RMS difference between observed CODAR current Venice station and radial currents of the WFS ROMS nested in climatology (1st exp.), WFS ROMS nested in NAT HYCOM temperature and salinity (2nd exp.) and WFS ROMS fully nested in NAT HYCOM (3rd exp.).
Fig. 13. Radial velocity (in m/s) measured from the CODAR antenna at Venice on May 23, 2004. The corresponding radial velocity WFS ROMS nested in climatology and fully nested in HYCOM are also shown. Positive values represent a current towards the antenna.
Fig. 14. Surface velocity on May 23, 2004 of WFS ROMS. The coverage of the CODAR antenna at Venice is also shown.
Table 1.
Average RMS errors in m/s between the CODAR radial velocities at Redington Beach and Venice site and the three model configurations
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