Long-term prediction of the Gulf Stream meander using OceanNet: a principled neural-operator-based digital twin
<p>Many meteorological and oceanographic processes throughout the eastern US and western Atlantic Ocean, such as storm tracks and shelf water transport, are influenced by the position and warm sea surface temperature of the Gulf Stream (GS) – the region's western boundary current. Due to...
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| Language: | English |
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Copernicus Publications
2025-06-01
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| Series: | Ocean Science |
| Online Access: | https://os.copernicus.org/articles/21/1065/2025/os-21-1065-2025.pdf |
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| author | M. Gray A. Chattopadhyay T. Wu A. Lowe R. He |
| author_facet | M. Gray A. Chattopadhyay T. Wu A. Lowe R. He |
| author_sort | M. Gray |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | <p>Many meteorological and oceanographic processes throughout the eastern US and western Atlantic Ocean, such as storm tracks and shelf water transport, are influenced by the position and warm sea surface temperature of the Gulf Stream (GS) – the region's western boundary current. Due to highly nonlinear processes associated with the GS, predicting its meanders and frontal position has been a long-standing challenge within the numerical modeling community. Although the weather and climate modeling communities have begun to turn to data-driven machine learning frameworks to overcome analogous challenges, there has been less exploration of such models in oceanography. Using a new dataset from a high-resolution data-assimilative ocean reanalysis (1993–2022) for the northwestern Atlantic Ocean, OceanNet (a neural-operator-based digital twin for regional oceans) was trained to predict the GS's frontal position over subseasonal to seasonal timescales. Here, we present the architecture of OceanNet and the advantages it holds over other machine learning frameworks explored during development. We also demonstrate that predictions of the GS meander are physically reasonable over at least a 60 <span class="inline-formula">d</span> period and remain stable for longer. OceanNet can generate a 120 <span class="inline-formula">d</span> forecast of the GS meander within seconds, offering significant computational efficiency.</p> |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj-art-3360963564c04444896ee240e8fce62e |
| institution | OA Journals |
| issn | 1812-0784 1812-0792 |
| language | English |
| publishDate | 2025-06-01 |
| publisher | Copernicus Publications |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Ocean Science |
| spelling | doaj-art-3360963564c04444896ee240e8fce62e2025-08-20T02:36:06ZengCopernicus PublicationsOcean Science1812-07841812-07922025-06-01211065108010.5194/os-21-1065-2025Long-term prediction of the Gulf Stream meander using OceanNet: a principled neural-operator-based digital twinM. Gray0A. Chattopadhyay1T. Wu2A. Lowe3R. He4Marine, Earth, and Atmospheric Sciences, North Carolina State University, Raleigh, NC 27695, USAApplied Mathematics, University of California, Santa Cruz, Santa Cruz, CA 95060, USAMarine, Earth, and Atmospheric Sciences, North Carolina State University, Raleigh, NC 27695, USAMarine, Earth, and Atmospheric Sciences, North Carolina State University, Raleigh, NC 27695, USAMarine, Earth, and Atmospheric Sciences, North Carolina State University, Raleigh, NC 27695, USA<p>Many meteorological and oceanographic processes throughout the eastern US and western Atlantic Ocean, such as storm tracks and shelf water transport, are influenced by the position and warm sea surface temperature of the Gulf Stream (GS) – the region's western boundary current. Due to highly nonlinear processes associated with the GS, predicting its meanders and frontal position has been a long-standing challenge within the numerical modeling community. Although the weather and climate modeling communities have begun to turn to data-driven machine learning frameworks to overcome analogous challenges, there has been less exploration of such models in oceanography. Using a new dataset from a high-resolution data-assimilative ocean reanalysis (1993–2022) for the northwestern Atlantic Ocean, OceanNet (a neural-operator-based digital twin for regional oceans) was trained to predict the GS's frontal position over subseasonal to seasonal timescales. Here, we present the architecture of OceanNet and the advantages it holds over other machine learning frameworks explored during development. We also demonstrate that predictions of the GS meander are physically reasonable over at least a 60 <span class="inline-formula">d</span> period and remain stable for longer. OceanNet can generate a 120 <span class="inline-formula">d</span> forecast of the GS meander within seconds, offering significant computational efficiency.</p>https://os.copernicus.org/articles/21/1065/2025/os-21-1065-2025.pdf |
| spellingShingle | M. Gray A. Chattopadhyay T. Wu A. Lowe R. He Long-term prediction of the Gulf Stream meander using OceanNet: a principled neural-operator-based digital twin Ocean Science |
| title | Long-term prediction of the Gulf Stream meander using OceanNet: a principled neural-operator-based digital twin |
| title_full | Long-term prediction of the Gulf Stream meander using OceanNet: a principled neural-operator-based digital twin |
| title_fullStr | Long-term prediction of the Gulf Stream meander using OceanNet: a principled neural-operator-based digital twin |
| title_full_unstemmed | Long-term prediction of the Gulf Stream meander using OceanNet: a principled neural-operator-based digital twin |
| title_short | Long-term prediction of the Gulf Stream meander using OceanNet: a principled neural-operator-based digital twin |
| title_sort | long term prediction of the gulf stream meander using oceannet a principled neural operator based digital twin |
| url | https://os.copernicus.org/articles/21/1065/2025/os-21-1065-2025.pdf |
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