Using Satellite-Derived SST Fronts to Evaluate an Eddy Resolving Numerical Circulation Model

The ability of HYCOM, an eddy-resolving ocean circulation model, to properly simulate the distribution of fronts in the upper ocean is evaluated using satellite-derived SST fields obtained from the MODIS spectro-radiometer. Although the HYCOM simulations are global, the analysis presented here was for the North Atlantic only. The MODIS data were resampled to the HYCOM grid, the University of Rhode Island (URI) edge detection algorithm was applied to the three year time series for both data sets and the frontal probabilities for the entire period were calculated at each pixel location for both data sets. Finally, the HYCOM minus MODIS frontal probabilities were analyzed. Preliminary results suggest that HYCOM tends to produce 10% more fronts than MODIS over most of the North Atlantic, but to underproduce fronts in a wide band crossing the North Atlantic from approximately 15degN, 60degW to approximately 30degN, 20degW.