National Centers for Environmental Prediction (NCEP) Regional Ocean Forecast System (ROFS) model output from 1999-08 (NODC Accession 0001548)

The Regional Ocean Forecast System (ROFS) has been developed jointly by the Ocean Modeling Branch of the National Weather Service's Environmental Modeling Center, the National Ocean Service's Coast Survey Development Lab, Princeton University, and Naval Oceanographic Office (NAVOCEANO). ROFS is based on a hydrodynamic, three-dimensional ocean circulation model (Princeton Ocean Model) which simulates temperature, salinity, surface elevation, and currents for a region off the U.S. East Coast from ~30 to 47N and out to 50W. The model is driven at the ocean surface boundary by heat, moisture, and momentum fluxes provided by NCEP's Eta mesoscale atmospheric forecast model. The ocean model is driven along its open (that is, southern and eastern) boundaries by climatological estimates of temperature, salinity, and transport. The spatial resolution of the model varies from approximately 20km offshore to about 10km nearshore. The coastal boundary corresponds to the location of the 10m isobath. In the vertical, an 18-layer sigma (terrain-following) coordinate system is used with at least half the layers concentrated in the upper 100m. Tidal forcing is included in the model.

The forecast cycle generates regional ocean forecasts out to 48 hours. Surface forcing is obtained from the 3-hourly surface fields from NCEP's Eta mesoscale atmospheric prediction model. [This abstract was obtained from the ROFS website at http://polar.wwb.noaa.gov/cofs/Description.html]

区域海洋预报系统（Regional Ocean Forecast System，ROFS）由美国国家气象局环境模拟中心海洋建模分部、美国国家海洋服务局海岸勘测开发实验室、普林斯顿大学以及海军海洋学办公室（Naval Oceanographic Office，NAVOCEANO）联合研发。ROFS基于流体动力型三维海洋环流模型——普林斯顿海洋模型（Princeton Ocean Model），该模型可模拟美国东海岸附近海域（北纬约30°至47°、西经50°范围内）的海水温度、盐度、海面高度及海流。模型通过美国国家环境预报中心（National Centers for Environmental Prediction，NCEP）的埃塔（Eta）中尺度大气预报模型提供的热量、水汽与动量通量，在海洋表面边界处实现驱动。海洋模型在其开放边界（即南部与东部边界）处，借助温度、盐度及输运量的气候学估算值进行强迫。该模型的空间分辨率从外海约20千米向近岸逐步提升至约10千米，海岸边界与10米等深线位置重合。垂直方向上，模型采用18层σ（地形追随）坐标系，且至少半数分层集中在海面上方100米的近表层区域。模型中纳入了潮汐强迫过程。

该预报周期可生成最长48小时的区域海洋预报产品。海面强迫数据取自美国国家环境预报中心埃塔中尺度大气预报模型每3小时输出一次的海面场数据。[本摘要取自ROFS官方网站http://polar.wwb.noaa.gov/cofs/Description.html]