The East Coast of Lewis and Harris Model

The East Coast of Lewis and Harris (ECLH) model is an implementation of the Finite Volume Community Ocean Model (FVCOM) and has a domain covering the whole of the Outer Hebrides, Skye and the Small Isles, and the north-west coast of Scotland. The model grid is unstructured with the highest horizontal resolution along most of the east coast of Lewis, where the  node spacing is as small as 40 m but more typically 100 – 200 m. In the east of the domain, the north-west coast of Scotland, the node spacing is typically around 500 m. At the open boundary, the node spacing is approximately 3 km. The water column is resolved by 10 terrain following sigma layers, each representing 10 % of the water column.

The main output from the model to date is a one year Climatology representing typical present day conditions (1990-2014). For this climatology, the model was forced by the wider Scottish Shelf Model (SSM) climatology at the open boundary. Effectively, the ECLH model is nested within the wider SSM. Climatological atmospheric forcing and freshwater input were also applied to the model. The wider SSM has a 1993 tidal component included, which was then applied to the ECLH climatology. The latest version of the climatology is ECLH 1.02.

This information page is part of the theme: 
The Scottish Shelf Model
The model domain and node spacing of the East Coast of Lewis and Harris model

Model Runs and Versions

The model versions/runs listed each have a different computational grid and/or use different forcing data. This is reflected in the version numbering convention where the first number indicates the grid version and the second indicates the model run and/or the forcing data used. Rows where the text is gray indicate that the model version has been surpassed with a later version, usually listed directly below. For example, ECLH 1.01 was replaced by ECLH 1.02.

Version Number Time Period Description Boundary Forcing Atmospheric Forcing Fresh Water Forcing FVCOM Version DOI
ECLH 1.01 6 month climatology (1 May - 1 Nov) representing 1960 - 2004 Original ECLH grid with climatological forcing The wider SSM version 1.01 Climatology derived from ECMWF ERA-40 and ERA-Interim (1960-2004) Grid2Grid climatology (1962-2011) 3.1.6  
ECLH 1.02 1 year climatology representing 1990 - 2014 Original ECLH grid with updated climatological forcing The wider SSM version 2.01 Climatology derived from ECMWF ERA-Interim (1990-2014) Grid2Grid climatology (1962-2011)  

10.7489/12042-1

If you are interested in any of these models, or the model outputs, please contact the Marine Scotland Science Oceanography group (mss.oceanography@gov.scot). Some reduced precision model outputs of selected variables are available for download by following the links in the data sources table below and/or following the DOI links.

Friday, March 4, 2022 - 12:03

Links and Resources

Type Title External link
Marine Scotland Data Portal The Scottish Shelf Model. Part 4: East Coast of Lewis and Harris Sub-Domain data.marine.gov.scot