National Centers for Environmental Prediction (NCEP) Regional Ocean Forecast System (ROFS) model output from 2004-07 (NODC Accession 0002153)

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#OM on June 23, 2004.]

区域海洋预报系统（Regional Ocean Forecast System，以下简称ROFS）由美国国家气象局环境模拟中心海洋建模分部、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，缩写NAVOCEANO）联合开发。ROFS基于水动力三维海洋环流模式——普林斯顿海洋模式（Princeton Ocean Model），该模式可模拟美国东海岸外约北纬30度至47度、西经50度范围内海域的温度、盐度、海面高度及海流。该模式的海面边界由美国国家环境预报中心（National Centers for Environmental Prediction，简称NCEP）的埃塔中尺度大气预报模式所提供的热量、水汽与动量通量驱动。该海洋模式的开边界（即南边界与东边界）则由温度、盐度及输运量的气候态估算值驱动。该模式的空间分辨率从远海的约20千米向近岸逐渐提升至约10千米。模式的海岸边界对应10米等深线的位置。在垂直方向上，模式采用18层σ（地形追随）坐标系，且至少半数层数集中于上层100米范围内。模式中还包含潮汐强迫项。

该预报周期可生成时效长达48小时的区域海洋预报。海面强迫数据取自NCEP埃塔中尺度大气预报模式每3小时输出一次的海面场数据。「本摘要于2004年6月23日取自ROFS官方网站：http://polar.wwb.noaa.gov/cofs/Description.html#OM」