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Ocean Sci., 8, 983-1000, 2012
www.ocean-sci.net/8/983/2012/ doi:10.5194/os-8-983-2012 © Author(s) 2012. This work is distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License. |
Validation of the NEMO-ERSEM operational ecosystem model for the North West European Continental Shelf
1Met Office, Exeter, UK
2Plymouth Marine Laboratory, Plymouth, UK
*now at: Environment Agency, Exeter, UK
Abstract. This paper details updates to the Met Office's operational coupled hydrodynamic-ecosystem model from the 7 km Medium-Resolution Continental Shelf – POLCOMS-ERSEM (MRCS-PE) system (Siddorn et al., 2007) to the 7 km Atlantic Margin Model NEMO-ERSEM (AMM7-NE) system. We also provide a validation of the ecosystem component of the new operational system. Comparisons have been made between the model variables and available in situ, satellite and climatological data. The AMM7-NE system has also been benchmarked against the MRCS-PE system. The transition to the new AMM7-NE system was successful and it has been running operationally since March 2012 and has been providing products through MyOcean (http://www.myocean.eu.org) since that time. The results presented herein show the AMM7-NE system performs better than the MRCS-PE system with the most improvement in the model nutrient fields. The problem of nutrient accumulation in the MRCS-PE system appears to be solved in the new AMM7-NE system with nutrient fields improved throughout the domain as discussed in Sect. 4. Improvements in model chlorophyll are also seen but are more modest.
Citation: Edwards, K. P., Barciela, R., and Butenschön, M.: Validation of the NEMO-ERSEM operational ecosystem model for the North West European Continental Shelf, Ocean Sci., 8, 983-1000, doi:10.5194/os-8-983-2012, 2012.