The Firth of Clyde Model

The Firth of Clyde (FOC) model is an implementation of the Finite Volume Community Ocean Model (FVCOM) and has a domain covering the Firth of Clyde and the North Channel between Scotland and Northern Ireland. The domain extends as far as Isle of Tiree and the Isle of Coll to the North and the Isle of Man to the South. The model grid is unstructured with the highest horizontal resolution in the Inner Firth of Clyde. The node spacing varies from less than 80 m in some areas to almost 3 km at the boundary. In the Inner Firth of Clyde the node spacing is typically around 200-300 m while in the surrounding area it is more commonly between 1000-1500 m. 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 FOC 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 FOC climatology.