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Toward the real-time South Florida and Florida Straits (SFFS) system
HeeSook Kang and Villy H. Kourafalou
RSMAS/University of Miami
(Abstract received 12/21/2010 for session X)
ABSTRACT
Two different continental shelves are separated by the Florida Keys: the Southwest Florida shelf and the Keys Atlantic coastal zone. These two shelf regions interact with each other through the tidal channels between the Keys and with strong offshore boundary currents at their outer edges, the Loop Current and the Florida Current on the Gulf and Atlantic sides of the Keys. The high resolution (1/100o) SFFS-HYCOM has been embedded within the data assimilative GOM-HYCOM (1/25o) model to form a system that properly represents the complex coastal to offshore interactions. In order to better simulate the exchanges through channels, eight tidal constituents have been added. Tides come from a local tidal potential directly computed in HYCOM and from the remote tide coming from outside the domain through the open boundaries. Sea surface height and barotropic velocities are extracted from the Egbert TPX tidal model for eight tidal constituents. SFFS simulations forced with high resolution/high frequency atmospheric forcing (COAMPS-27km) have revealed, for the first time, not only mesoscale, but also sub-mesoscale eddy passages (known from high frequency radar WERA data) during a targeted 5-year simulation period (2004-2008). These eddies were validated with high resolution SeaWiFS chlorophyll-a images. The SFFS-HYCOM has been running in near real time since July 2010, with GFS atmospheric forcing.
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2011 LOM Workshop, Miami, Florida February 7 - 9, 2011