The Impact of the Resolution of the Atmospheric Forcing on the Surface Layers of an Ocean Model

Analyses of a high-resolution (3km) regional Navy Coastal Ocean Model (NCOM) that was forced using three different resolution atmospheric models (55km, 15km, and 9km) are compared to a large number of temperature-salinity profiles collected near Hawaii. The primary focus is on the surface layers, and particular attention is given to diurnal effects. The mixed layer and other near-surface processes are strongly influenced by the resolution of the atmospheric forcing applied to the ocean model. Higher resolution atmospheric models will better determine the orographic effects and contain more small-scale energy, but how important are these effects on an ocean model given the relatively larger scales in the atmosphere? The relative importance of the atmospheric resolution on ocean mixed-layer development and diurnal effects is studied.