SURF-NEMO Platform v1.1.0 Released — Explore What's New!

SURF-NEMO v1.1.0 delivers integrated tidal forcing interface, consistent velocity remapping from general curvilinear parent grids, and a redesigned modular workflow to strengthen the scientific accuracy and operational applicability of nested high-resolution ocean model experiment.

We are pleased to announce the release of SURF-NEMO Platform v1.1.0, a significant update that further strengthens the structured-grid component of the SURF relocatable ocean modeling platform.

This version introduces major enhancements to improve the physical realism and operational applicability of regional and coastal simulations. A key advancement is the full interface with the NEMO tidal module, enabling users to activate gravitational tidal forcing and lateral tidal forcing at open boundaries directly within the SURF workflow.

The system now manages the automated download, subsetting, reformatting, and interpolation of external tidal products (e.g., TPXO), including tidal elevation and barotropic velocity components. These fields are used to generate the corresponding open boundary condition files required to consistently constrain sea surface height and velocity. This development supports more physically robust simulations in regions where tides play a critical role in circulation, mixing, and coastal processes.

SURF-NEMO v1.1.0 also improves the remapping of velocity fields from large-scale parent models to nested child grids. When parent models are defined on rotated or curvilinear grids (such as tripolar grids), velocity components are not aligned with true east–west and north–south directions. The new release introduces a consistent rotation from the local grid coordinate system to the geographical reference frame prior to interpolation, ensuring dynamically coherent velocity fields and reducing potential numerical inconsistencies in nested simulations.

Beyond these physical enhancements, the modeling workflow has been reorganized into clearer and more modular processing stages, improving transparency, maintainability, and extensibility. Several core procedures have been migrated to Julia, supporting long-term sustainability and performance improvements.

Additional user-configurable parameters further expand the platform’s flexibility, allowing researchers to tailor experiments to a wide range of scientific objectives, modeling strategies, and regional configurations.

We encourage the community to explore SURF-NEMO v1.1.0, apply it to diverse scientific case studies, and provide feedback as the platform continues to evolve.