Salinity Processes Upper Ocean
Sponsored by NASA, salinity Processes in the Upper Ocean Regional Study (SPURS) is exploring the salinity maximum region in the Atlantic Ocean using a plethora of oceanographic equipment and technology. The SPURS ocean modeling and forecasting system is developed to perform Observing System Simulation Experiments (OSSEs) prior to field campaigns, provide real-time forecast during field campaign, and produce reanalysis post field campaigns. The system is based on the community Regional Ocean Modeling System (ROMS), which is configured as a nested set of three spatial domains at horizontal resolutions of 9, 3 and 1 km and with 50 vertical levels. A multi-scale three-dimensional variational data assimilation (MS-3DVAR) scheme is used to assimilate observations from an array of satellites, autonomous vehicles, and other in-situ platforms.