An evaluation of eight global ocean reanalyses for the Northeast U.S. continental shelf

Carolina Castillo-Trujillo, A., Kwon, Y.-O., Fratantoni, P., Chen, K., Seo, H., Alexander, M. A., & Saba, V. S., 2023. An evaluation of eight global ocean reanalyses for the Northeast U.S. continental shelf. Progress in Oceanography, 103126. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.pocean.2023.103126

The Northeast U.S. continental Shelf (NES) extending from the Gulf of Maine to Cape Hatteras, is a dynamic region supporting some of the most commercially valuable fisheries in the world. This study aims to provide a systematic assessment of eight widely used, intermediate-to-high spatial resolution global ocean reanalysis products (CFSR, ECCO, ORAS, SODA, BRAN, GLORYS, GOFS3.0, and GOFS3.1) against available in situ and satellite ocean observations. In situ observations include water level from tide gauges, and temperature and salinity from various sources including shipboard hydrographic data, and moorings on the NES. The figure shows the difference between reanalysis and observed Bottom Temperature (BT). Observations are provided by the NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information (NCEI) Northwest Atlantic Regional climatology. Reanalysis are mostly biased towards warmer temperatures with GLORYS reproducing best the observations. (Image provided by Alma Carolina Castillo-Trujillo)