Annual brainstorming at Mercator

The Mercator mainspring Project Team who designs, develops, qualifies and implements the operational systems held a meeting for the new season beginning. Discussions about scientific and technical aspects showed the team maturity. Lively discussions revealed its enthusiasm.

As every year, September is the time of the complete Project Team meeting at Mercator. 52 people are today working together to ensure the future of Mercator. Every team has drawned up the balance sheet of the year, the objectives of the next 12 months and the strategy to succeed.

The 2005 target : "PSY3" or the high resolution global ocean numerical forecast , with sea ice modelling and in situ data assimilation

2005 will be marked by the high resolution global prototype release. Global ocean will be described routinely at a 1/15° resolution on the North Atlantic and Mediterranean and 1/4° on the rest of the globe. This will be a remarkable contribution in the scientific community : Mercator will join the pool of the very rare high resolution global operational models that exist in the world.

Global ocean as seen by "PSY3"

Sea ice extension modelisation
02-07 November 1995 mean
Source : G. Garric

Progress is concerned not only with resolution and geographical extension but also in the sea ice modelling at the North and South poles : sea ice will not be deduced only from temperature anymore but will be an intrinsic variable (pronostic variable) computed as the other intrinsic variables such as temperature, salinity or current. The model will predict concentration, depth and drifting of the sea ice. The assimilation scheme will be furthermore multivariate, assimilating altimetric data, sea surface temperatures and in situ profiles such as Argo floats or Pirata moored buoys (as it is already done in the medium-resolution Atlantic prototype).

Coastal

Bay of Biscay : Mercator surface temperature interpolated on a coastal model grid
Source : D. Obaton

But Mercator does not intend to stop here. In 2004 a "coastal" activity has began. The aim consists in providing coastal models with initial and boundary conditions. Objectives are simple but means to achieve them are less! Discussions around this question dealt with the degree of transformation that Mercator has to provide to its outputs. From deep ocean to the coast, from a raw output to stable fields, which part of the route does Mercator shall bring over? Questions which have to be solved during this year.

Ocean indicators

Last challenge for 2005 : added value production useful to end users working on environmental problematics. Ocean state, oceanic regimes, ecosystemes indicators, climate indicators will consist in the "achieved matter" of the Mercator matrix.

Anticipating the technical steps that will lead to a high quality high resolution global ocean model, this turn must be already taken.

Tropical variability mechanisms
Source : P. Chang