COAPS Ocean Modeling

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Ocean Modeling

Ocean modeling activities within the Center for Ocean-Atmospheric Predictions Studies (COAPS) include model development, research, and graduate instruction, using models of various complexity, architecture, horizontal and vertical coordinate representaion as the principal tools. Models employed at COAPS vary from very high-resolution (hundreds of meters between grid points with very fine vertical grid spacing) regional models to basin-scale and global models.

The models currently used at COAPS are:

Regional/coastal: NCOM, FVCOM, HYCOM, ROMS
Basin-scale: HYCOM
Global: HOPE, HYCOM

Model experiments are routinely run on the local COAPS computers as well as at various supercomputer centers (FSU, NAVOCEANO, NCAR, etc.). Modeling studies focus on a wide range of topics from exploring physical processes in the deep and upper ocean to improving ocean forecasting. Coupling of the ocean models with different atmospheric/flux models allows researchers to study air-sea interaction at a wide range of time scales. For example, regional models coupled to the BVW atmospheric heat flux model are used to perform more realistic analyses of the air-sea interaction and ocean response during hurricanes. The global models are coupled to either the COAPS/FSU global atmospheric model or to the NCAR Community Atmosphere Model (CAM) within the Community CLimate System Model (CCSM). These coupled models are used to investigate climate variability or climate change.

Please contact Steve Morey at or Dmitry Dukhovskoy at or Eric Chassignet at for more information.