A. Birol Kara, Alan J. Wallcraft, and Harley Hurlburt, Naval Research Lab.
The major features of the global HYCOM mixed layer will be described, as will the procedure used to validate the mixed layer model. A 0.72 degree fully global (Arctic bipolar patch) domain is used to validate the mixed layer within HYCOM as this is computationally inexpensive enough to run multiple simulations. The latitudinal resolution is increased to 0.36 degrees at the equator to improve HYCOM's equatorial dynamics. Our basic methodology is to force the model with monthly climatological atmospheric fields, but with the addition of representative 6-hourly wind stress anomalies, using the model SST and an accurate bulk formula to calculate latent and sensible heat fluxes. Then compare the resulting monthly averaged model SST's with SST monthly climatology (9 km PathFinder). The model performance is evaluated using zonally--averaged statistical metrics over the global ocean.