The Modelling and Forecasting Facility contributes to SOCIB's objectives by both developing and maintaining  operational forecasting systems and conducting scientific research to continuously support the improvement of these systems.

The  Modelling and Forecasting Facility activities are mainly centered in the Western Mediterranean Sea, with a particular interest in the Balearic Sea and adjacent sub-basins (in particular the Algerian sub-basin and  Alboran Sea), considering a  wide range of spatio-temporal scales, from the nearshore to the open ocean and from the short-term evolution to the interannual and climatic variability.

The Modelling and Forecasting Facility runs three operational ocean forecasting systems on a daily basis:

  • WMOP: high-resolution ocean circulation predictions
    WMOP is based on a 2km-resolution regional ocean configuration of the ROMS model implemented over the Western Mediterranean Sea.  The model is forced by high-resolution winds (5 km, 1 hour). The system is run every morning, producing a 3-day forecast of ocean temperature, salinity, sea level and currents. It assimilates observations from satellite, Argo floats and Ibiza Channel HF radar. The model represents the ocean variability from the (sub-)meso- to the basin-scale. 
    Updated pictures and animations of the daily forecasts are available on the Modelling and Forecasting Facility home page  and in the Section Ocean forecast. The SOCIB application LW4NC allows an interactive visualization of the model outputs, which can also be downloaded as netcdf files through SOCIB thredds server (see Section Data access). The model is systematically evaluated against satellite and in situ observations (see Section Operational validation),  and model indicators are provided in the Section Ocean indicators.   
    Besides the daily forecasts, the WMOP configuration is also used to generate free-run hindcast simulations spanning the period 2009-2016 (simulations available upon request). 
     
  • SAPO: wave forecasts
    SAPO (Auntonomous Wave Forecast System) of Balearic Islands is a 72-hour forecast sevice that SOCIB developed in collaboration with Puertos del Estado. This System  runs on SOCIB's COMPUTING center. SWAN model is executed in automatic mode twice a day, using as input wave and wind forecasts offered by Puertos del Estado.  It shows the eovolution of waves characterisitcs(height, period and direction) from deep waters to shallow waters with a resolution of 0.5km.
     
  • BRIFS: extreme sea level oscillations predictions
    A meteo-tsunamis forecasting system has been developed aiming at predicting extreme sea level oscillation events in Ciutadella Harbour (Menorca, Spain). Meteo-tsunamis are oceanic long waves with tsunami-like characteristics, but of meteorological origin. A coupled ocean-atmopshere system involving multiple nested grids is used to simulate the sea level oscillations in Ciutadella harbor, intending to predicting  some of the occurrences of the extreme “Rissaga” phenomenon.

DISCLAIMER: The forecast products presented in the webpage are provided "as is" without warranty of any kind, including any implied warranties of merchantability or fitness for a particular purpose.