The operational Australian Bluelink ocean forecast system is used to transform physical oceanographic observations into coherent analyses and predictions. These analyses and predictions form the basis for information services about the marine environment and its ecosystem, and can provide boundary data for weather predictions. Bluelink information services are available to marine industries (e.g. commercial fishing, aquaculture, shipping, oil and gas, renewable energy), government agencies (e.g. search and rescue, defence, coastal management, environmental protection), and other stakeholders (e.g. recreation, water sports, artisanal and sport fishing) who depend on timely and accurate information about the marine environment. This review highlights the last 15 years of Bluelink achievements delivering mesoscale (eddy-resolving) to sub-mesoscale and short- to medium-range (days to weeks) ocean forecasts and reanalyses. Key achievements include the development of a global ocean forecasting and reanalysis system, a relocatable ocean-atmosphere model and a littoral zone analysis and forecasting capability. Beyond the traditional short-term forecasting of physical ocean properties (temperature, salinity, surface height, currents, waves), marine activities such as water quality and habitat management as well as climate monitoring increasingly rely on operational oceanographic data and products. These are areas of active research of the Bluelink team in collaboration with national and international partners.

Ocean observations

Commercial fishing

Argo

10.1080/1755876x.2019.1685834

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Citations (32)

Short- to Medium-Range Ocean Forecasts: Delivery and Observational Requirements

Gary B. Brassington A. Hines E. Dombrowsky Shiro Ishizaki Frank L. Bub

10.5270/oceanobs09.pp.08

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Citations (1)

Recent progress in performance evaluations and near real-time assessment of operational ocean products

Journal of Operational Oceanography (2015)

Fabrice Hernández Ed Blockley Gary B. Brassington Fraser Davidson Prasanth Divakaran

Operational ocean forecast systems provide routine marine products to an ever-widening community of users and stakeholders. The majority of users need information about the quality and reliability of the products to exploit them fully. Hence, forecast centres have been developing improved methods for evaluating and communicating the quality of their products. Global Ocean Data Assimilation Experiment (GODAE) OceanView, along with the Copernicus European Marine Core Service and other national and international programmes, has facilitated the development of coordinated validation activities among these centres. New metrics, assessing a wider range of ocean parameters, have been defined and implemented in real-time. An overview of recent progress and emerging international standards is presented here.

10.1080/1755876x.2015.1050282

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Citations (69)

Estimating Surface Divergence of Ocean Eddies Using Observed Trajectories from a Surface Drifting Buoy

Journal of Atmospheric and Oceanic Technology (2009)

Gary B. Brassington

Abstract A method is described that estimates the time evolution of surface divergence and other secondary circulation properties of an ocean eddy. The method is novel because it is applied to the observations of a single surface drifting buoy. Surface drifting buoys located on ocean eddies provide Lagrangian trajectories that orbit the local extremum in geopotential. At each instance, the position of the buoy lies on the boundary of a closed material surface over the eddy. Assuming, on an ocean eddy, that the material boundary points vary smoothly in time, a method is developed to estimate all points along this boundary. An ellipse is fitted to the approximated material boundary to provide a continuum of properties, including centroid, aspect ratio, orientation, and area. The time rate of change of these properties provides approximations to the eddy velocity, moment of inertia, secondary rotation, and surface divergence. Two surface drifting buoys deployed on an anticyclonic eddy in the East Australian Current are used to demonstrate the analysis method. The estimated surface divergence is compared and interpreted using the observed separation of the two drifting buoys and other independent observations.

Drifter

Buoy

Eddy

Boundary current

Ellipse

10.1175/2009jtecho651.1

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Citations (14)

GODAE OceanView Inter-comparison for the Australian Region

Journal of Operational Oceanography (2015)

Prasanth Divakaran Gary B. Brassington Andrew Ryan Charly Régnier Todd Spindler

This paper compares the performance of short-range operational ocean forecasts, using 'observational space' metrics developed under GODAE OceanView (GOV). Best estimates (behind the real-time analysis) and forecasts are inter-compared for the Australian region (0-50S, 90-180E) for 2013. Systems considered include those developed in Australia, France, Canada, United Kingdom and USA. Each system is compared to observations of along-track sea level anomaly, sea surface temperature observations from surface drifters and sub-surface Argo profiles of temperature and salinity. The UK operational system generally has the smallest errors for sea surface temperature and sea level anomaly for the Australian region. However, the French systems outperform others in sub-surface temperature and salinity for the region. Of the two products provided by the Australian centre, an ensemble based approach is found to perform better than the deterministic system, having higher skill and lower root mean square errors. Some of the 'better' results of systems can be attributed in part to the lack of independence of the reference observations; however the study does demonstrate the feasibility and robustness of GOV global ocean inter-comparison efforts for regional applications.

Argo

Temperature salinity diagrams

Anomaly (physics)

Robustness

10.1080/1755876x.2015.1022333

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Citations (30)