WMOP: Western Mediterranean SOCIB high-resolution ocean forecasting system

The Balearic Islands Coastal Observing and Forecasting System (SOCIB) is a multi-
platform distributed oceanic observatory providing both oceanographic data and modelling
services to support the operational oceanography in the European and international
framework. The Modelling and Forecasting Facility contributes to SOCIB objectives
by both developing and maintaining operational forecasting systems and conducting
scientific research to continuously support their improvement. Among these systems is
the western Mediterranean high resolution operational ocean forecasting system WMOP,
which provides temperature, salinity, sea level and currents predictions every day with
a 2km and 3h resolution. Monitoring and validation procedures have been developed
using multi-platform observations to systematically assess the model performance and to
detect model errors at local, sub-basin and basin scales. The systematic validation routine
allows to highlight both the general realism of the WMOP ocean forecasting system and
sub-regional model errors. The 3-day forecast of physical ocean fields, data visualization
and validation results are available on-line at www.socib.es.