Previous Seminars

Modelling of suspended matter in the southern North Sea.

Speaker: 
Gerard Dam
Affiliation: 
DAM engineering
Seminar Date: 
27. January 2016 - 12:00 - 12:30

A large scale model of the southern North Sea is presented that is used to simulate suspended matter. This concentration of suspended matter is dependent on a.o. tides and waves. Therefore the concentration has different timescales from hours (storms) to months (seasons). The combined hydrodynamic and wave model is calibrated on these different time scales using continuous measurements at specific locations and satellite images for the big scales. The model shows a good comparison with the measurements on the several scales.

Sea ice diffusion in the Arctic ice pack: a comparison between observed buoy trajectories and the neXtSIM and TOPAZ-CICE sea ice models

Speaker: 
Sylvain Bouillon
Seminar Date: 
26. January 2016 - 12:00 - 12:30

Due to the increasing activity in Arctic, sea ice-ocean models are now frequently used to produce operational forecasts, for oil spill trajectory modelling and assist in offshore operations planning. In this study we propose a method based on a Lagrangian diffusion analysis to evaluate the sea ice drift properties simulated by two different sea ice models, TOPAZ-CICE and neXtSIM, which are both developed for such applications.

Revisiting the assimilation cycle in NorCPM

Speaker: 
Sebastien Billeau
Affiliation: 
Ecole des Mines Paris; NERSC; UiB
Seminar Date: 
7. January 2016 - 11:15 - 11:45

The Norwegian Climate Prediction model (NorCPM) combines the Norwegian Earth System Model and the Ensemble Kalman Filter data assimilation method. NorCPM assimilates monthly SST for the purpose of reanalysis and climate predictions. The current work revisits the assimilation cycle in NorCPM, in order to 1) improve the representativity during the assimilation algorithm (currently we compare monthly averaged observations with a snapshot of the state of the system) 2) reduce the storage of the model output.

Nansen-Cloud

Speaker: 
Morten W. Hansen, Anton Korosov
Seminar Date: 
17. December 2015 - 11:00 - 11:30

We introduce a concept called a Scientific Platform as a Service (SPaaS) to aid the management and synergistic use of EO data within the Nansen Group of research centers in Norway, Russia, China, Bangladesh, India, and South Africa. We present a prototype implementation of the SPaaS (the Nansen-Cloud), which handles data from satellite remote sensing but also in-situ and model data.

Variability of Suspended Particulate Mass Distribution Using MODIS Imagery within the Columbia River Estuary (CRE)

Speaker: 
Jing Tao
Affiliation: 
Dalhousie University Halifax Canada
Seminar Date: 
15. December 2015 - 13:30 - 14:00

Physical, optical, and particle-sensing instruments were profiled at a series of stations through the mouth and into the nearshore in the highly stratified waters of the Columbia River Estuary (CRE), USA. A variety of proxies of particle concentration, size distribution and composition were derived from these measurements. Suspended Particulate Mass concentrations (SPM) was high in the vicinity of boundary between fresh and salt water in the mouth of the river, because the high bed stresses landward of density front resuspended silts and sands at the river mouth that settled rapidly.

DEnKF for combined state and parameter estimation: application to a 3-D physical-biological ocean model

Speaker: 
Liuqian Yu
Affiliation: 
Dalhousie University Halifax Canada
Seminar Date: 
14. December 2015 - 12:00 - 12:30

Realistic physical-biological models are invaluable tools for ocean research and prediction, but their capacity is often limited by the various sources of error resulting from imperfect descriptions of physical and biological processes, inaccurate forcing, initial and boundary conditions, imprecise parameter values etc. Data assimilation methods, which can optimally merge the information contained in observations and dynamical models, are needed to improve estimates of the ocean state and its parameters.

Predictive skill of sea surface temperature in the Nordic Seas - towards a better understanding of skill on longer lead time

Speaker: 
Helene R. Langehaug
Seminar Date: 
11. December 2015 - 13:00 - 13:30

The predictive capacity of the Nordic Seas is very little studied, as opposed to the subpolar North Atlantic. Here we are assessing the predictive skill of sea surface temperatures in the Nordic Seas on interannual time scale (using the CMIP5 decadal prediction experiments). There are large differences in the skill among the models.

Combining oil- and larve-drift simulations

Speaker: 
Annette Samuelsen
Affiliation: 
NERSC
Seminar Date: 
2. December 2015 - 14:15 - 14:45

Oil spills may impact the survival and development of fish eggs and larvae. In this study we have combined the results from an oil-drift model with the results of a model simulating egg and larvae drift for cod. The purpose is to compute the risk of fish eggs and larvae encountering an oil spill as a function of time of the year and the oils spill location. The two models were forced by ocean and atmosphere reanalysis and wave model simulations for the period 1991 to 2010 and the spill locations were selected based on ship-density observations.

Sea ice forecasting with regard to shipping

Speaker: 
Andrea Gierisch
Affiliation: 
Finnish Meteorological Institute
Seminar Date: 
25. November 2015 - 10:00 - 10:45

Sea ice in the Arctic is decreasing, which opens new possibilities for shipping, for example on the Northern Sea Route. In order to find the safest and best routes through these partly ice-covered waters, navigators need accurate forecasts of the sea ice conditions for a few days. Such forecasts were successfully produced by an operational model system which was developed during the project IRO-2 (Hamburg). Short-range sea ice forecasts were used for ship-routing of the ice-going vessel R/V Lance. Evaluating the simulations with satellite observations can indicate the benefit of the model.

Sea Ice Remote Sensing

Speaker: 
Dr. Stefan Kern
Affiliation: 
Integrated Climate Data Center, University of Hamburg, Hamburg, Germany
Seminar Date: 
24. November 2015 - 13:00 - 13:45

Sea ice is a fascinating form of frozen water. It is extremely beautiful. But perhaps more importantly it plays a key role in many facets of the Earth’s climate system. It acts as an insulating blanket on the Polar Oceans, freshwater and sediment transport medium, water mass modification trigger, hatch and playground for unique creatures, and impediment for marine activities – to mention a few.