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Specific regions of the Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) parallel ocean program (POP) eddy resolving global model are being validated using in-situ data and are then used to explore dynamical questions or to examine variability on time and space scales unavailable from data. The selected regions were chosen as their correct modeling is important in both ocean and climate studies. In the Indonesian archipelago, a region which is key to interbasin transfers of heat and momentum, "Arlindo" CTD data are being compared with POP thermohaline fields, and the seasonal and interannual variability of the total throughflow examined. Off the west coast of North American, data and model fields were used to explain the causes of the 1991-1992 El Niño event. In addition to the regional studies, global comparisons of the mesoscale variability in the POP model, the Semtner and Chervin model and TOPEX/POSEIDON data were used to assess the role of increased resolution in the POP model.
Other research work includes comparing temporally and spatially co-located POP thermohaline and current fields with the one-time WOCE surveys and the current meter moorings. In addition the temporal variability of the model fields at these locations, particularly the seasonal and interannual variability, are being examined over the period 1991-1995. Comparisons of statistics and trajectories from the "Pan Pacific" surface drifters with model fields are underway and are planned for the WOCE/SVP drifter set. As well, dynamical questions such as the causes of 50-day oscillations, already evaluated in the western tropical Atlantic using the WOCE Community Model, will be pursued in the tropical Indian and the western tropical Pacific Oceans. Confirmatory examples of this variability are being sought in in-situ data.
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