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

Abstract

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. Overall, the coarser resolution products exhibit limited skill in the coastal environment, with the high-resolution products better representing the temperature and salinity on the NES. Common biases are found in all reanalyses and in some regions within the NES; for example, biases in temperature and salinity are larger in the southern Mid-Atlantic Bight than in the rest of the NES. There is no single reanalysis that performs well across all parameters in all regions within the NES, but GLORYS and BRAN stand out for their superior performance across the largest number of metrics, outperforming other products in 22 and 25 of the 65 metrics examined, respectively. SODA is the top performer among the coarser resolution products (CFSR, ECCO, ORAS and SODA). The Gulf Stream and local bathymetry are critical factors leading to differences between the reanalyses. Conditions in summer are less well represented than in winter. In particular, the Mid-Atlantic Bight Cold Pool is not reproduced in four (CFSR, ECCO, ORAS, BRAN) of the eight reanalyses.