CSIRO and ROAM

Relocatable Ocean and Atmosphere Model

Australia's atmosphere and ocean are part of the global system. The models being developed for BLUElink> simulate the whole of the world's ocean and atmosphere, but with increasing accuracy close to Australia. In this way, scientists can account for the effect of large-scale winds and currents on the Australian region. They will become even more accurate with the Relocatable Ocean and Atmosphere Model (ROAM).

With ROAM, an operator at a computer terminal will be able to specify a particular geographic region, around 100 to 500 km in extent. This might be Bass Strait or the Timor Sea, for example. ROAM will then automatically interrogate the latest output from BLUElink>'s global models and 'nest' more detailed atmospheric and ocean models inside it. It will then produce a forecast of the meteorological and ocean conditions for the next several days.

ROAM will predict wind, rain and temperature in the atmosphere, and currents, temperature and salinity in the ocean. The model is being developed for the Navy to calculate the behaviour of radar and sonar in particular operational locations for their next few days of activity.

As implemented in BLUElink>, ROAM models will typicall cover the continental shelf, with a maximum horizontal resolution of 2km. ROAM will facilitate the implementation of higher resolutoin nested circulation models for coastal embayments and estuaries.

This particular model is a CSIRO initiative for specific application purposes, and will not be run by the Bureau of Meteorology as part of its operational suite.