The sea surface temperature: COAMPS/NCOM modeling and in situ measurements

The bulk sea surface temperature (SST) simulated by COAMPS/NCOM [Coupled Ocean/Atmosphere Mesoscale Prediction System (COAMPS) and the Navy Coastal Ocean Model (NCOM)] compares reasonably well with the bulk SST measured on the North Carolina shelf during the October of 2015 field campaign of the CASPER Project (Wang et al. in Bull Amer Met Soc 99:1449–1471, 2018). The model slightly overestimates the field data by about 0.15 °C; a linear regression is strong with a coefficient of determination r2 > 0.9. In deep waters of the Gulf Stream core, COAMPS/NCOM typically underestimates the measured SST by less than 1 °C except in the cold lens or meander where the temperature gradients were smoothed by the model. It is evident that sub-mesoscale features like frontal eddies, meanders and filaments, require a resolution higher than the 3 km grid spacing adopted for modeling.