Department of Oceanography, University of Cape Town, Rondebosch 7700, South Africa; Southern Ocean Carbon and Climate Observatory, CSIR-NRE, PO Box 320, Stellenbosch 7599, South Africa; FOAM Ocean Modelling Group, Met Office, Exeter, Devon EX1 3PB, United Kingdom
Loveday, B., Department of Oceanography, University of Cape Town, Rondebosch 7700, South Africa; Swart, S., Department of Oceanography, University of Cape Town, Rondebosch 7700, South Africa, Southern Ocean Carbon and Climate Observatory, CSIR-NRE, PO Box 320, Stellenbosch 7599, South Africa; Storkey, D., FOAM Ocean Modelling Group, Met Office, Exeter, Devon EX1 3PB, United Kingdom
Ocean models require independent datasets to verify forecast accuracy. Glider data, within an appropriate reference frame, can satisfy this constraint. In the present paper, profiles from the northwest Mediterranean Sea are re-gridded to allow evaluation of modelled deepwater formation episodes. Time-series analysis of temperature, salinity, mixed-layer depth and ocean heat content show that the simulated response to surface flux is consistent with observations and the evolution of convective events is well represented. However, discrepancies in the distributions of the simulated Levantine Intermediate Water (LIW) and western Mediterranean deep water (WMDW) remain. A new 'sweep' methodology, developed in the present paper, indicates that the location and duration of the simulated convective events are consistent with that observed, but spatial variability is underrepresented. Variogram analysis ascribes integral scales similar to those observed for the mixed-layer depth, but suggests that simulated scalar fields are too diffuse. The ability to maximise the separation of temporal and spatial variability, inherent in this new methodology, confirms that glider data is suitable for validating high-resolution ocean models.
Convective events; Data sets; Deep Water; Deep-water formation; Forecast accuracy; FORECAST model; High-resolution ocean model; Levantine intermediate waters; Mediterranean; Mediterranean sea; Ocean heat content; Ocean model; Reference frame; Scalar fields; Simulated response; Spatial variability; Surface flux; Temporal and spatial variability; Underwater gliders; Validation; Variogram analysis; Variograms; Western Mediterranean; Harmonic analysis; Heat convection; Gliders; accuracy assessment; convection; deep water; gliding; intermediate water; performance assessment; spatiotemporal analysis; surface flux; underwater camera; Mediterranean Sea; Mediterranean Sea (Northwest)