Towards a Coupled Environmental Prediction System

Towards the realization of a global coupled air/ocean/ice predictive system for Navy needs, two high resolution modeling efforts are underway whose goals are the development and upgrading of the ocean and sea ice components. A 0.1°, 40-level global configuration of the Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) Parallel Ocean Program (POP) integration is being performed on an IBM SP3; this is the first time an ocean simulation of this size has been carried out. The Polar Ice Prediction System (PIPS) 3.0 uses a 1/12°, 45level grid and covers all the northern ice-covered regions. The latter model and a 0.1°, 40-level North Atlantic only POP integration are compared with coarser resolution runs and observations, demonstrating the importance of high resolution to the representation of ocean circulation. Mean volume and heat transports into the Arctic are realistically simulated by PIPS 3.0.