Numerical simulation of the Gulf of Mexico (GOM) using the HYbrid Coordinate Ocean Model (HYCOM) from January to December 2016

Physical circulation fields from a 1/25-degree Gulf of Mexico HYbrid Coordinate Ocean Model (HYCOM) simulation spanning January to December 2016. The circulation model output includes temperature, salinity, velocity (currents), sea surface elevation in the Gulf of Mexico. The native vertical structure is a 32-layer hybrid time-variant sigma/z/rho. Post-processing interpolates it to a time-invariant 50-level z vertical structure for end-user dissemination. The ocean model is forced by the Navy Global Environmental Model (NAVGEM, version 1.3/1.4) at 0.28-degree resolution, includes tides (TPXO), and 3D Variational data-assimilation (Navy Coupled Ocean Data Assimilation- NCODA). Tidal boundary conditions for water level and barotropic velocity are provided by the Oregon State University global Ocean Tide Inverse Solution (OTIS). Rivers are implemented as a 'precipitation bogus' at the river source specified by a monthly climatological global database, that includes the mass-transports and other pertinent demographics for each river. This modeling effort supported DEEPEND oceanographic cruises DP03 and DP04.