Recent Progresses in the Operational Ocean Prediction around Korean Waters

Abstract

We present our recent progress in establishing an operational ocean prediction system for waters around Korea (POM). One of the factors that determine the accuracy of an ocean prediction model is the quality of input data for open boundaries and sea surface forcing from observations. It is also affected by the data assimilation method, sub-grid scale parameterization, and numerical schemes adopted in the model. To develop the most applicable ones for the Korean seas among the known methods is our main subject. Most of the observed data are temperature and salinity, and the current data for input boundary are very few.Various numerical experiments were conducted in order to investigate the effects of the input boundary condition, the transport through the Korea Strait, on the upper layer circulation in the East Sea. Variations in the transport have strong influences on the EKWC (East Korean Warm Current) separation latitude and variability of the upper layer. Especially, the region along the Japanese coast shows most sensitive to the temporal variations in the transport. We also discuss model results using transport measured across the Korea Straits for 10 months (Perkins et al, 2001). For the verification of operational prediction satellite tracking drifters both at surface and at depth are compared with model streak plots.