She et al.
Operational Oceanography and Earth System Science
Frontiers In Earth Science | www.frontlersln.org
9
February 2020 | Volume 8 | Article 7
dedicated WG on regional climate system models (RCSMs)
is planning and performing coordinated experiments of an
ensemble of RCSMs with the aim to improve coupled models, to
exchange expertise and to investigate the added value of RCSMs.
Based upon the dynamical downscaling approach using RCSMs
with lateral boundary data from global climate models, paleo-
climate simulations of the past 1,000 years (e.g., Schimanke et al.,
2012) and projections of the twenty-first century were performed
(e.g., Meier et al., 2018a; Dieterich et al., 2019; Groger et al.,
2019). As the sizes of the ensembles were relatively large, they
allowed to estimate uncertainty ranges and to identify the sources
of uncertainties. For further details, the reader is referred to the
review article by Meier et al. (2019) and the original literature
cited therein.
Ongoing Activities
Following the original idea of identifying knowledge gaps (Baltic
Earth Science Plan Writing Team, 2017), currently a series
of extensive Baltic Earth Assessment Reports (BEAR) is in
preparation. For each of the GCs, a team of experts from
the Baltic Earth network has started to collect information
from scientific publications to summarize the current state
of knowledge in the respective research fields and to identify
knowledge gaps. In addition, one of these assessments will be
the BACC III report, an update of the knowledge recently gained
after the publication of the comprehensive BACC I and II reports
(BACC Author Team, 2008; BACC II Author Team, 2015). As for
the previous two BACC reports, a close collaboration between
Baltic Earth and HELCOM is envisaged. For the update of the
Baltic Sea Action Plan (BSAP), climate change will be considered.
Moreover, Baltic Earth scientists participate in the HELCOM—
Baltic Earth Expert Network on Climate Change (EN CLIME)
that will produce a Climate Change Fact Sheet for policy makers
and the public based upon BACC results. Assessments of our
knowledge on the regional Earth system (including aspects of
processes, climate, and environment) are an integral part of
Baltic Earth.
OPERATIONAL OCEANOGRAPHY AND
BALTIC EARTH
RESEARCH-INTERACTIONS
Use of Operational Observing for Baltic
Earth Research
Due to the operational feature of the observation production,
quality control and open and free dissemination, the operational
data are useful to all kinds of users, ranging from research,
ecosystem-based management, climate change adaptation, and
mitigation to blue economy information service. For the Baltic
Earth research, the BOOS observations are especially valuable
due to three reasons: (i) long history: operational monitoring
of temperature, salinity, sea level, currents and ice started 100
years ago; (ii) the high resolution observations provide rich
information on hydrographical and biogeochemical processes,
and (iii) NRT delivery of data ensures timely access. The
historical operational observations are the major data source of
the climate data archive in the sea. However, a significant part of
them has not been digitized, e.g., Finnish ice charts (since 1915)
and Danish sea level, T/S, currents and ice measurements before
1930. High-resolution SST and sea ice products in the past 100
years are essential in the reconstruction of accurate atmosphere-
ocean states. The high-frequency sea level observations can be
used for studying important ocean processes in scales of hours
to a few weeks, e.g., storm surges, coastal waves, basin-scale sea
level dynamics (GCs 1, 3, and 4). FerryBox and shallow water
Argo floats data can be used for investigating processes of sub-
mesoscale and mesoscale eddies, river plumes and coastal-estuary
interaction, inter-subbasin water exchange, upwelling, ocean heat
content anomaly, algae bloom and oxygen depletion etc. Mooring
observations, with hourly measurements and more parameters,
in addition to the above usages, are also suitable for studying the
diurnal variation of SST, chl-a and trophic layer optical features.
Considering the free and 24/7 (all time) availability
of the BOOS data, any research field campaign should
use them as background observations, for the design of
the campaign sampling schemes whenever necessary. The
research observing program can also consider joint observing
activities by mobilizing the observing infrastructure from the
BOOS members.
Use of Operational Modeling for Baltic
Earth Research
The operational modeling platforms, products (both short- and
long-term) and data assimilation and cal/val tools, as described
in section BALTEX/Baltic Earth marine research, can be used for
the Baltic Earth research, for example,
1. Reconstruction of past hydrodynamic and biogeochemical
state: decadal ocean-ice-wave-biogeochemical reanalysis and
reprocessed satellite and in-situ observation products from
CMEMS provide ready to use data for the GCs 1, 3, 4, and 5.
2. The operational cal/val toolbox developed in the BAL
MFC can be applied and further developed for evaluating
climate models
3. Downscaled operational models are capable of predicting
small-scale variability in up to tens-of-meter resolution. Some
of them are computationally so efficient that they can be
applied in climate simulations with very high resolution (GCs
2, 5, and 6)
4. The short-term operational products, e.g., forecast, interim
reanalysis, can be used for studying the natural hazards and
extreme events (GC3)
5. End-to-end modeling: the solid operational products can
provide robust inputs (ocean-ice-wave-biogeochemical
variables) to end-to-end modeling (GC6)
Potential Contribution From Baltic Earth
Community to Operational Oceanography
Operational Observing
Research observations from the Baltic Earth community, if they
can be adapted to meet operational requirements, will be very
useful for filling the gaps of the BOOS observational network.
ICES database collects ship observations from the HELCOM
