Bluelink Project

(in collaboration with the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO))


Product description

Bluelink is an Australian partnership between CSIRO, the Bureau of Meteorology and the Royal Australian Navy. The Bluelink ocean model is the Ocean Forecasting Australia Model (OFAM), a global configuration of MOM4.0d with 1/10° resolution around Australia. Observations are assimilated into OFAM using the Bluelink Ocean Data Assimilation System (BODAS), an ensemble Optimal Interpolation (EnOI; Oke et al. 2002; 2006) system that has been developed under Bluelink. BODAS assimilates the following observations from various sources including Argo and SOOP-XBT:

  • sea-level anomaly (SLA)
  • sea-surface temperature (SST)
  • in situ temperature (T)
  • in situ salinity (S)
Bluelink performs ocean reanalyses known as Bluelink ReANalyses (BRAN). BRAN1.0 is a 14-year reanalysis that assimilated SLA and in situ temperature and salinity. The most recent BRAN (BRAN1.5) is a 3.5-year reanalysis that assimilates SLA, SST and T and S profiles. BRAN1.5 SST is typically within 0.7° of observed SST, with anomaly correlations of around 0.7.

Ocean parameters

The following parameters are outputs of the Bluelink model and can be found here:

  • SST and SST anomaly
  • Surface currents
There are maps to look at as well as data to download from an LAS server. The downloadable data is from 1993-2003. The maps are more recent, including current estimates of SST and currents like shown in the map to the right.

Resolution

The model has a global configuration with 1/10° resolution around Australia. Several boxes exist around Australia's coastline as close ups. The large box around Australia goes from 90-180° E and south of 30° N.

Atmospheric pressure contours & SST 03-June-2006

SST anomaly (31-Mar-2007 - 05-Apr-2007) &
    geostrophic velocity (02-April-2007)

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