A Five-Level Nested-Grid Coastal Ocean Circulation Prediction System for Canadian Atlantic Coastal Waters

A five-level nested-grid coastal ocean circulation prediction system known as the NCOPS-LB was developed for simulating the three-dimensional (3D) circulations and hydrographic distributions over Canadian Atlantic coastal waters. The system is the integration of a shelf circulation forecast system known as Dalcoast 3 and a high-resolution coastal circulation model for Lunenburg Bay (LB). The NCOPS-LB is driven by meteorological forcing based on 3-hourly weather forecast fields provided by the Meteorological Service of Canada and astronomical forcing produced by WebTide developed by the Department of Fisheries and Oceans of Canada. The prediction system is used to study the dynamic response of the inner Scotian Shelf to tropical storm Alberto in June 2006. A comparison of model results with the observations made in LB demonstrates that the NCOPS-LB has reasonable skills in predicting surface elevations, currents, and hydrographic distributions associated with coastal upwelling/downwelling over the inner Scotian Shelf.