Y. Tony Song (Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Caltech, Pasadena, CA 91109)
Jin-Yi Yu (Department of Atmospheric Sciences, UCLA, CA 90959)

Abstract:
The exchange of heat, moisture, momentum, and particles between the sea and the air is fundamental to an understanding of the ocean-atmosphere system, especially in the coastal zone. The coastal zone has a number of distinctive characteristics, including complex coastline and terrain variation, strong surface temperature gradient due to upwelling, and intense air-sea-land interaction. To better understand this complex and important climate system requires high-resolution observations and coupled ocean-atmosphere modeling.

Recent JPL remote sensing instruments, such as the QuikSCAT scatterometer, the TOPEX/Jason-1 altimeter, and the Terra MISR/ASTER, have made detailed observations possible. The goal of this study is to develop a fully synchronous, state-of-the-art coupled coastal ocean-atmosphere model to fully utilize those satellite observations for better prediction and understanding of the air-sea-land system.

We are developing a coupled regional ocean-atmosphere system (Figure 1) based on the Regional Ocean Model System (ROMS), the parallel version of SCRUM originated from Song & Haidvogel (1994), and the recently released Atmosphere Mesoscale Prediction System (AMPS, the atmospheric components of COAMPStm) from NRL. These two models are compatible in numerical design, physical dynamics, as well as similar regional application characteristics. Several hypothesis-driven tests are used to evaluate the physical dynamics and numerical performance, including the marine boundary-layer evolution, wind-driven upwelling, and coastal terrain effect.