Attachment 5 - Appendix A Latest EDS Current Guide- Appendix B Latest EDS Wind Guide - Appendix C Web Service Details.pdf

APPENDIX A

Environmental Data System (EDS)

(Currents)

(Updated 21 November 2024)

Highlights and Notes

This is an overview of the surface current products and data available in the Environmental Data System (EDS version 2.0) as of 15 August 2018. Below are relevant highlights and notes on EDS and its products.

The products listed here are available to USCG users of SAROPS. The products are listed by order of preference from highest to lowest in the flow charts for that particular end point. However, the primary choice, if available, should always be evaluated. The EDS choice should first be evaluated for coverage of the AOI in time and space; then for coverage in the immediate area of the scenario(s). And then finally the EDS choice should be evaluated against data sources, the secondary choices, on scene reports and local or expert knowledge. If the primary choice does not satisfy the above evaluations; secondary and tertiary sources should be considered and evaluated for use. Many of the EDS sources are equivalent or nearly equivalent, so consideration and use of secondary and tertiary sources is encouraged. Data sources of winds (NDBC buoys) and currents (SLDMBs and HF radar data) are listed last.

Global HYCOM (Navy) currents are forced with winds from Navy’s NAVGEM, and therefore pair NAVGEM winds with Global HYCOM (Navy) currents.

Global HYCOM (NCEP) currents are forced with winds from NCEP’s GFS, and therefore pair GFS winds with Global HYCOM (NCEP) currents.

The European Copernicus currents are forced with winds from ECMWF atmospheric numerical prediction model, and therefore pair ECMWF winds with Copernicus currents.

The Australian Bluelink currents (BLUELINK_V3_C) are forced with winds from ACCESS G3 (ACCESS_G3_W) atmospheric numerical prediction model, and therefore pair ACCESS G3 winds with Bluelink currents.

No_GoMex_FVCOM_NOS2_C currents are forces with winds from NOS No_GoMex_NOS2_W model, and therefore No_GoMex_FVCOM_NOS2_C currents should be paired with No_GoMex_NOS2_W winds.

Names now contain the product, (source) and if necessary the type or short descriptor and ends with ‘_C’ to indicate that it’s a surface current product. After a current product is downloaded, the DTG of the download request is also appended to specific file name. Thus the current file name in the TOC or cached products will have the format: ‘name_descriptor_(source)_C: DTG’.

The FVCOM models are identified by the descriptor ‘_FVCOM_’ in their name tag. CAUTION: these models are very high resolution and therefore can generate excessive download and run times. Limit the AOI to only what is needed for the simulation

The vertical extent of the surface layer is now reported in the Tables 1-4. There is wide variation among the oceanographic models and even within the models on the thickness of the surface layer that is reported to the EDS/SAROPS. Surface currents are influenced from below by deep currents (e.g. tidal currents, mean, seasonal, and several day (i.e. geostrophic) currents) and from above by the local winds. The thinner the surface layer modeled, the quicker and faster that modeled layer will respond to its local modeled winds; and vice versa, thicker layers mean slower response and slower currents. Since the operational definition of leeway relates the motion of the SAR object to the upper 1.0 meter of the ocean and SLDMBs are drogued at between 0.3 and 1.0 meters depth, the closer the model’s surface layer is to 1.0 meter the closer it can be expected to represent the surface layer as defined in SAROPS’s equations and tracked by the SLDMBs.

The confidence parameters used to determine the dispersion or spread of the particles due to uncertainty in the current vectors are now provided for each EDS current product and are provided in the background to SAROPS Simulator. Also provided is the internal Time Step within the SAROPS Simulator. High resolution models require a shorter Time Step to prevent particles from skipping over grid cells during a single Time Step. Caution: this may result in longer Simulator run times.

The Skill of each model at predicting the drift of SLDMBs has now been measured. For each model, SLDMB tracks, at 6-hour intervals, are compared to simulated tracks from the models where model and SLDMB data were available and co-located. These SLDMB - model comparisons and skill scores are available to CG SME.

The Doppio_Rutgers_C EDS product has been added as of 15 August 2018

The Espresso_Rutgers_C EDS product has been dropped as of 15 August 2018

The CA_3km_UCLA_C was discontinued in October 2022 and replaced by WCOFS

The Currents Sketch Tool has been removed in SAROPS 2.0; so this guidance reflects that change here and in the flow charts. Selection of SLDMB in the EDS menu is meant to replace the Sketch Tool for use of SLDMB data.

If SLDMB data is not available, then Manual Input of currents in the EDS Current GUI is the last remaining option for surface currents.

If no data on currents is available for Manual Input; then use zero speed, 090 direction as inputs. This will result in SAROPS using only leeway to compute particle drift trajectories.

Inquiries: Dr. Cristina Forbes (Oceanographer for CG-SAR-1)

The objective is to SELECT the most appropriate EDS current source.

Job Aids

East Coast D1 East Coast D5 East Coast D7 Gulf of Mexico D8 Great Lakes D9 West Coast D11 West Coast D13 West Coast D14 West Coast D17

Table 1.

EDS SURFACE CURRENTS PRODUCTS

(Real-time Data-assimilating Numerical Models)

EDS LISTING

PRODUCT

OWNER COVERAGE

DATA CELL

HORIZONT

AL SIZE

(Horizontal Resolution)

SURFACE CELL

VERTICAL SIZE

FORECAST

FREQUEN

CY

(Temporal Resolution)

FORECAS

T

LENGTH

MODEL

RUN

Global_ HYCOM_ NCEP_C*1 NCEP *2 Global 8 km 0.17 - 1.0 m Hourly 144 Hrs Daily Global_ HYCOM_ Navy_C *3 Navy Global 8 km 0.17 - 1.0 m Every 3 Hrs 144 Hrs Daily

AGG_ADCIRC_GHycom_C*4

NCEP &

ADCIRC

Developme nt Group

Global/ Regional

3-14 km 0.17 - 1.0 m Every 3 Hrs 72/84 Hrs Daily

BLUELINK_V3_C

BoM*17

GLOBAL

[-75 to 75°]N, [-180 to 180]°E

0.1°x 0.1° (~10km x 10km)

2.5m

Every 3 Hrs

168 hours (7 days)

Daily

CARICOOS_C CARICOOS

*24

Puerto Rico & Virgin Islands [16.5°N - 20°N, 68.5°W - 63.5°W]

0.081 - 3 km 5 m Hourly 72 hours Daily

ChesBay_NOS_C DelBay_NOS_C

NOS

Chesapeake/ Delaware

Bay

0.1 - 3 km

0.1 - 2.75 m

0.2 - 13.0 m

Hourly 48 Hrs 4 Times Daily

Cook_Inlet_NOS_C NOS*5 Cook Inlet 50 m- 8 km 0.04 – 1.15 m Every 6 Hrs 48 Hours 4 Times Daily

COPERNICUS_GLOBAL_C CMEMS

Global

[-90° to 90°Lon -180° to 180°]

0.83°x0.83° (9kmx9km)

0.5 m Hourly 10 days Daily

Doppio_Rutgers_C Rutgers

Univ Nova Scotia to Cape

Hatteras 7 km 0.12 - 6.2 m 3 Hourly 60 Hrs Daily

GIOPS_C ECCC*25 Global

0.25° Equator: 27 km, Artic

Ocen 12 km

1 m Every 3 Hrs 10 days Daily

Guam_UHI_C U

Hawaii*14 Guam and Northern

Mariana Islands 2 km 1 m Every 3 Hrs 6 Days Daily

Hawaii_UHI_C U

Hawaii*14 Main Hawaiian Islands 4 km 1 m Every 3 Hrs 24 Hrs Daily

Kaneohe_UHI_C U Oahu - Kaneohe 100 m 0-1 m Hourly 3 Days Daily

Hawaii*14 L_Champlain_GLERL_C GLERL*6 Lake Champlain 50-400 m 0.5 cm – 6 m Hourly 120 hours Daily

L_Ontario_NOS_FVCOM_C NOS*5 Regional

(Great Lakes)

0.2 – 2.5 km 0.0125 – 5.69 m Hourly 120 Hrs 4 Times Daily

L_Superior_NOS_FVCOM_C NOS*5 Regional

(Great Lakes)

0.2 – 2.5 km 0.0125- 9.49 m Hourly 120 Hrs 4 Times Daily

L_Erie_NOS_FVCOM_C NOS*5 Lake Erie 0.03 - 2 km 0.0125 -1.57 m Hourly 120 Hrs 4 Times Daily

L_MichHuron_NOS_FVCOM_C NOS*5 Lakes Michigan &

Huron 0.05-2.5 km 0.0125 - 6.79 m Hourly 120 Hrs 4 Times Daily

L_Erie_GLERL_FVCOM_C L_MichHuron_GLERL_FVCOM _C

L_Ontario_GLERL_FVCOM _C L_Superior_GLERL_FVCOM _C

GLERL*6

Regional

(Great Lakes)

0.03 – 2 km

Erie: 0.0125 -1.57 m Michigan-Huron: 0.0125

- 6.79 m Ontario: 0.0125 - 5.69 m Superior: 0.0025 - 9.49 m

Hourly

72 Hrs (ice season)

120 Hrs (no ice season) finishing at

5:20 and

17:20 GMT

2 Times Daily

LIS_FVCOM_C UCONN*16 Long Island Sound 500 m in the sound

0.7 - 9.0 m Hourly 72 Hrs Daily

Maine_FVCOM_UMass_C UMass

Dartmouth DelMar to NE Nova

Scotia .2 - 20 km 0.5 - 5.0 m Hourly 48 Hrs Daily

MassBay_FVCOM_UMass_C UMass

Dartmouth*

Portsmouth, NH to Buzzards Bay

0.050 - 1 km 0.01 - 2.0 m Hourly 48 Hrs Daily

NCOM_AmSeas_C Navy Gulf of Mexico and Caribbean

[94°W-54°W, 5°N-33°N]

3.108-3.692 km

(1/30°)

1 m Every 3 Hrs

96 Hrs Daily

NCOM_Alaska_C Navy Alaska [170°W-119°W, 36°N-63°N]

1.683-2.998 km (1/30°)

NCOM_Hawaii_C Navy Hawaiian Islands [166°W-151°W, 15°N-30°N]

3.210-3.580 km

NCOM_SoCal_C Navy Southern California [125°W-110°W, 25°N-41°N]

2.797-3.359 km

NCOM_USec_C Navy US East Coast [82°W-63°W, 20°N-43°N]

2.710-3.483 km

No_GoMex_FVCOM_NOS2_C NOS*5 Mexico Border to

Panama City

0.045 - 10 km 0.5 - 5 m Every 3 Hrs 48 Hrs 4 Times Daily

NY_Hrbr_NOS_C

NOS*5

NY/NJ harbor

0.05 - 1 km 0.0 - 3.5 m Hourly 36 Hrs 4 Times Daily

Oahu_UHI_C U

Oahu 1 km 0-1 m Every 3 Hrs 7 Days Daily

Oahu_SouthShore_UHI_C U

Hawaii*14 Oahu 200 m 0-1 m Every 3 Hrs 3 Days Daily

RIOPS_C CCMEP*21 N. Atlantic & Pacific Oceans from Bering

Strait in Arctic Ocean to 44° N in the Pacific

& 26°N in Atlantic Oceans

3 km - 8 km (1/12°)

1 m Hourly 84 Hours 4 Times Daily

Samoa_UHI_C U

Hawaii*14 Islands of Samoa 3 km 1 m Every 3 Hrs 7 Days Daily

SalishSea_ColumbiaR_NOS_C*5 NOS Salish Sea, Columbia

River

Puget Sound:

100-500m Columbia

River: 100- 200m

Continental Shelf 10 km

72 hrs 4 Times Daily

SanFran_NOS_C NOS San Fran Bay 0.1 - 4 km 0.1 - 5.0 km Hourly 36 Hrs 4 Times Daily

StClair_FVCOM_GLERL_C*7

GLERL

Lake St Clair, St

Clair/Detroit Rivers .020 - 0.40 km

0.3 - 2.9 m Hourly 48 Hrs Daily

StJohnRiver_NOS_C NOS St. John River, FL 0.05 - 1 km 0.0 - 3.25 m Hourly 36 Hrs 4 Times Daily

STOFS_ATL_C NOAA

Western Atlantic W of

60W 2.5-6 km 0 m Hourly 96 hours

Daily (at 12

UTC)

STPS_MidAtl_ UConn_C

MARACO

OS/UCON

N*15

Coastal Cape Cod to Cape Hatteras

6 km 2.3 m

3 hourly averages updated every hour

From time of HF radar data to +24

HRS

Hourly

STPS_West_UConn_C UCONN*16 California, Oregon coasts 6 km 2.3 m

3 hourly averages updated every hour

From time of HF radar data to +24

Hrs

Hourly

TAMU_TX_LA_C TAMU*22 Texas and Lousiana 0.650-3.7 km 0.1 ~ 1m Hourly 96 hours Daily TWDB_CCI_C TWDB*23 Corpus Christi, Texas 0.053-

2.232km Local total depth Every 3 Hrs

522 Hours Daily

TWDB_CSA_C TWDB*23 San Antonio, Aransas and Copano Bays

0.060-2.518 km

TWDB_GAL_C TWDB*23 Galveston Bay, Texas 0.221-5.304

TWDB_MAG_C TWDB*23 Matagorda, Texas 0.137-2.398

TWDB_SAB_C TWDB*23 Sabine Lake, Texas/Lousiana Border

0.049-2.262

Waikiki_UHI_C U

Oahu 200 m 0-1 m Hourly 3 Days Daily

WCOFS_NOS_C

NOAA-CO-

OPS*19

US West Coast

[18.44°N -56.48°N] 4 km 0-2m Hourly 3 Days Daily

WFCOM_USF_C USF-OCL

Gulf of Mexico:

Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, FL West Coast and FL Keys

50-10000 m 0-4 m Hourly 3.5 Days Daily

WPAC_UHI_C

U

Hawaii*14

West Pacific 116 E - 148 E

2N - 27 N 8 km 1 m Every 3 Hrs 6 Days Daily

TampaBay_NOS_C NOS*5 Tampa Bay 0.1 - 1.2 km 0.2 - 2.8 m Hourly 48 Hrs 4 Times Daily

*1) Hybrid Coordinates Ocean Model (RTOFS - Real-time Operational Forecast System (Atlantic))

*2) National Centers for Environmental Prediction (NOAA - National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration)

*3) Hybrid Coordinates Ocean Model

*4) Advanced Circulation Model

*5) National Ocean Service (NOS)

*6) Great Lakes Environmental Research Laboratory (NOAA)

*7) Finite Volume Coastal Ocean Model

*8) University of Massachusetts, Dartmouth

*9) New York Harbor Observing and Prediction System

*11) Northwest Atlantic Marine Environmental Prediction model

*12) North Carolina State University

*13) University of California, Los Angeles

*14) University of Hawaii

*15) Mid-Atlantic Regional Association Coastal Ocean Observing System

*16) University of Connecticut, Marine Science Program.

*17) Australian Bureau of Meteorology (BoM)

*18) Copernicus Marine Environment Monitoring Service (CMEMS)

*19) Center for Operational Oceanographic Products and Services (CO-OPS)

*20) University of South Florida Ocean Circulation Laboratory

*21) CCMP Canadian Centre for Meteorological and Environmental Prediction

*22) TAMU Texas A & M University

*23) TWDB Texas Water Development Board

*24) CARICOOS The Caribbean Coastal Ocean Observing System

*25) Environment and Climate Change, Canada

Table 2.

EDS SURFACE CURRENTS PRODUCTS

(Tidal or Historical-data Numerical Models)

OWNER COVERAGE

DATA CELL

HORIZONTAL SIZE

SURFACE CELL

VERTICAL SIZE

FREQUENCY MODEL RUN

ADCIRC_APS_UNC_C *1

Univ North

Carolina Albemarle and Pamlico

Sound

0.01 - 1 km Full water depth Hourly Daily

ADCIRC_East_tides_C ADCIRC_West_tides_C

ADCIRC

Development

Group

Regional (Entire U.S., Coastal Areas, Bays, Inlets and Rivers) 1 - 5 km Full water depth Hourly Locally on demand

SanFran_tides_ASA_C ASA *2 San Francisco Bay 0.5 - 1 km Full water depth Hourly Locally on demand StrJDeFuca_tides_ASA_C ASA Puget Sound 1 km Full water depth Hourly Locally on demand NarragBay_tides_ASA_C ASA Narragansett Bay 0.25 km Full water depth Hourly Locally on demand

SE_AK_tides_ASA_C ASA Regional (SE Alaska) 2.5, 1.25, 0.6, 0.3 km Full water depth Hourly Locally on demand

PWS_tides_ASA_C *3 ASA Regional (Prince William

Sound) 0.35, 0.7, 1.4 km Full water depth Hourly Locally on demand

Mariano_ShipDrift_C Mariano

*4 Global

111 km 1 Degree of Lat/Long

10 m None (Seasonal averages) Retrieved

Locally on demand

FLDA_Transects_C FLDA*5 Regional (Florida Gulf

Stream) 11 km

0.1 Degree of Lat/Long

100 m None (Monthly averages)

Retrieved Locally on demand

*1) Advanced Circulation Model *2) Applied Science Associates, Inc.

*3) Prince William Sound *4) The Arthur Mariano historical ship drift data file *5) Florida Gulf Stream Data

Table 3.

EDS DATA SOURCES

(Real-time Currents Data)

OWNER COVERAGE DATA

VERTICAL

EXTENT OF

DATA

FREQUENCY COMMENTS

HFRadar_MidAtl2_C MARCOOS*1 Coastal Cape Cod to Cape Hatteras

Surface currents mapped by HF Doppler radar

2.3 m 6 km, 3 hourly averaged updated every hour Available up to 3 hours ago

HFRadar_East_C National *2 Gulf of Mexico to

Gulf of Maine Surface currents mapped by

HF Doppler radar

2.3 m

6 km, 3 hourly averaged updated every hour

Available up to 3 hours ago

HFRadar_PR_C National West Coast of Puerto Rico

Surface currents mapped by HF Doppler radar

2.3 m 6 km, 3 hourly averaged updated every hour Available up to 3 hours ago

HFRadar_West_C National Calf to Wash Surface currents mapped by

HF Doppler radar

2.3 m

6 km, 3 hourly averaged updated every hour

Available up to 3 hours ago

HFRadar_HI_C National Oahu Surface currents mapped by

HF Doppler radar

0.75 m

6 km, 3 hourly averaged updated every hour

Available up to 3 hours ago

Rivers_USCS_C USGS *3 Below the John

Day Dam on Columbia River

Each river segment Depth of river 2-day average Locally on demand

SLDMB_C *4 USCG

Deployed in response to SAR cases

Surface Drifter 1.0 m 30 minute GPS positions EDS uses to determine model skill values

*1) Mid-Atlantic Region Coastal Ocean Observing System *2) National Ocean Observing System - academic and government sponsored collection of data.

*3) U.S. Geological Survey *4) Self-Locating Datum Marker Buoys

Global_HYCOM_NCEP_C

RTOFS - Real-time Operational Forecast System (Global). Basic description of Global HYCOM are found at http://polar.ncep.noaa.gov/global/about/GODAE11_poster_d1.pdf http://polar.ncep.noaa.gov/global/. HYCOM is a new generation of models where the vertical layers of the model are varied by region and depth. In the open, stratified ocean, isopyncal (constant density) layers are used.

Approaching the sharp continental shelves terrain-following (sigma) layers are used, and in the surface or unstratified regions horizontal (z-level) layers are used. This mixture of vertical coordinates allows the physics to smoothly transfer the open ocean physics to the shallow water (http://hycom.org/). The surface layer thickness ranges from 0.17 meters inshore to a maximum of 1.0 meters offshore. The NCEP global HYCOM model is an eddy resolving global model run once a day and produces 2-day nowcasts and 6-day forecasts. The model is initialized daily from the 3D Navy’s multi-variate data assimilation of a wide variety of sources in-situ and remotely sensed. NCEP global HYCOM model is forced by the NOAA GFS 3-hourly winds, radiation and precipitation. At the present time, Global HYCOM does not include tides or tidal forcing.

Global_HYCOM_Navy_C

Basic description of Global HYCOM are found at http://polar.ncep.noaa.gov/global/about/GODAE11_poster_d1.pdf http://polar.ncep.noaa.gov/global/. HYCOM is a new generation of models where the vertical layers of the model are varied by region and depth. In the open, stratified ocean, isopyncal (constant density) layers are used.

Approaching the sharp continental shelves terrain-following (sigma) layers are used, and in the surface or unstratified regions horizontal (z-level) layers are used. This mixture of vertical coordinates allows the physics to smoothly transfer the open ocean physics to the shallow water (http://hycom.org/ ). The surface layer thickness ranges from 0.17 meters inshore to a maximum of 1.0 meters offshore. The Navy global HYCOM model is an eddy resolving global model run once a day and produces 2-day nowcasts and 6-day forecasts. The model is initialized daily from the 3D Navy’s multi-variate data assimilation of a wide variety of sources in-situ and remotely sensed. Navy global HYCOM model is forced by the Navy NAVGEM 3-hourly winds, radiation and precipitation. Navy’s Global HYCOM includes a global model of tides from Oregon State University.

AGG_ADCIRC_GHycom_C

Since NCEP Global HYCOM does not contain tides and ADCIRC is strictly tidal currents, these two can be combined together to add tides to global HYCOM (NCEP) currents in the near-shore regions. ADCIRC tidal current vectors are vectors added to the global HYCOM non-tidal currents.

BLUELINK_C

The Bluelink OceanMAPS operational ocean forecasting model is run and delivered by the Bureau of Meteorology (BOM), Australia. The model is under ongoing development by a collaborative effort among BOM, the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO) and Royal Australian Navy (RAN) under the Bluelink partnership since 2003 with the goal of developing and sustaining operational systems for the global ocean circulation. Currently Bluelink team develops and enhances ocean forecasting capabilities for ocean circulation for global, regional and littoral scales. The latest version of the OceanMAPS model is v.4.0i which was operationally implemented in June 2022.

The forecasting system is based on Ocean Forecasting Australia Model (OFAM) which is a near-global (i.e., excludes polar areas) eddy-resolving configuration of the Modular Ocean Model-MOM (version 5.0 (Griffies,2012)). MOM is a numerical representation of the ocean’s hydrostatic primitive equations and is developed and supported by researchers at NOAA’s Geophysical Fluid Dynamics Laboratory. The bathymetry dataset used in the Bluelink v4.0i system is GEBCO at 0.5-minute resolution, and 0.15-minute resolution product developed by Geoscience Australia. The atmospheric fields for forcing the ocean model come from Australian Community Climate and Earth-System Simulator- Global (ACCESS-G) model which is also operated by BoM. For each forecast, data assimilation process is carried out using available observations, including satellite remote sensing (e.g. sea surface temperature, satellite altimetry) and in-situ data such as water temperature and salinity profiles from ARGO floats, XBT and CTD.

CARICOOS_C

The Caribbean Coastal Ocean Observing System (CARICOOS) implemented a high-resolution coastal modeling system utilizing the Finite Volume Community Ocean Model (FVCOM) to improve our understanding of coastal circulation dynamics in Puerto Rico and the US Virgin Islands (PRVI). The model employs unstructured triangular elements in the horizontal domain to achieve a more accurate geometric representation of intricate coastlines. Quality checks. The resulting model mesh comprised 175,616 irregular triangular elements and 91,221 nodes, with resolutions ranging from 100 meters at the coast to 3 kilometers at the boundary.

The operational model configuration underwent continuous updates in recent years, providing a one-day nowcast and a three-day forecast. Boundary conditions were established using a regional version of the Navy Coastal Ocean Model (NCOM) for American Seas (AmSeas), which assimilates quality-controlled observations from satellite products through the NRL-developed Navy Coupled Ocean Data Assimilation (NCODA) system.

Spatially varying meteorological conditions were supplied by the CARICOOS 2/6-km Weather Research and Forecasting Models (WRF). Hourly variables at the ocean-air interface contributes to driving and constraining the exchange of momentum, heat, and upper-layer circulation. Wind stress was computed using the bulk formula of Large and Pond, and surface net heat fluxes were calculated with a bulk parameterization scheme. Fourteen tidal constituents (M2, N2, S2, O1, K1, NU2, J1, P1, Q1, M4, MF, MM, SA, SSA) were incorporated into the PRVI-FVCOM simulation. The T-tide MATLAB package predicted the amplitude and phases of these tidal constituents, with harmonic constants specified by the TPXO-7.2 dataset. These tide-induced elevations were added to the sub-tidal components and imposed along the open boundaries.

ChesBay_NOS_C, DelBay_NOS_C, TampaBay_NOS_C, StJohnRiver_NOS_C, NY_Hrbr_NOS_C SanFran_NOS_C

NOS runs Operational Forecast Systems for Chesapeake Bay; Delaware Bay; Tampa Bay; St. Johns River; and New York and New Jersey harbor regions. These 3-D ROMS numerical models include ADCIRC tides and global HYCOM (NCEP) temperatures and salinities at the outer boundaries; river flow (USGS stream gage for nowcast and persisting the most recent observation for the forecast period); and wind forcing is from hourly surface wind analysis from NCEP for the nowcast and NAM for the forecasted periods. NOS Operational Forecast system models’ horizontal and vertical grid cell sizes and minimum and maximum surface layer thickness are summarized in Table 5.

Table 5.

Horizontal and Vertical grid cell sizes of the NOS Operational Forecast System models NOS model Horizontal Grid (km) Top Vertical Grid (%) Min model Depth (m) Max model Depth (m) Min Surface Layer (m) Max Surface Layer (m)

NY/NJ Harbor 0.2 - 0.6 14.3 0 25 0 3.6 St. Johns River 0.15 - 1 16.7 0 19.5 0 3.25

Tampa Bay 0.3 - 1 9 2 31 0.2 2.8 Del Bay 0.2 - 2.5 10 2 130 0.2 13

Chesapeake Bay 0.5 - 3 5 2 55 0.4 11 San Francisco Bay 0.1 - 4 5 0.2 106.8 0.1 5

ColumbiaR_NOS_C

Columbia River Estuary Operational Forecast System (CREOFS) has been developed jointly by the Oregon Health & Science University (OHSU), the NOAA/National Ocean Service's (NOS), and the NOAA/National Weather Service's (NWS) National Centers for Environmental Prediction (NCEP). CREOFS uses a prognostic, unstructured-grid, free-surface, 3-D primitive equation, the Semi-implicit Eulerian-Lagrangian Finite Element (SELFE) model, which was developed at the Oregon Health & Science University (OHSU). The triangle-based unstructured grid model extends from ocean to just below the Bonneville Dam in North Bonneville, WA out to the Washington/Oregon coast. River flow data is from USGS at the Bonneville Dam, offshore open boundary forcing is from NCEP global HYCOM and winds are from 4-km NAM. CREOFS uses a hybrid vertical coordinate system so that the surface layer is 1/37th the water depth when water depth is less than 100 meters, and is 2.7 meter thick in water 100 meter deep or deeper. Tidal open boundary conditions are from a high-resolution assimilating tidal model for the northeast Pacific Ocean with 8 constituents of M2, K1, K2, N2, S2, O1, P1 and Q1. River forcing (discharge and water temperature) is estimated using near-real-time observations from the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) river gauges and projected river discharges at Bonneville Dam from Bonneville Power Administration (BPA). Pre-generated climatological daily mean river discharges, temperature, and salinity are used as backup if no real-time observations are available at runtime. CREOFS replaces the CMOP; Lower Columbia River and Upper Columbia River tidal models.

Cook_Inlet_NOS_C

The new three-dimensional Cook Inlet Operational Forecast System (CIOFS) was developed by the NOAA/National Ocean Service/Office of Coast Survey in a joint project with the NOAA/NOS/Center for Operational Oceanographic Products and Services (CO-OPS) and the NOAA/National Weather Service/National Centers for Environmental Prediction (NCEP) Central Operations (NCO) using Rutgers University's Regional Ocean Modeling System (ROMS). CIOFS surface meteorological forcing conditions are based on the National Weather Service (NWS) North American Mesoscale (NAM) weather prediction model (for both nowcast and forecast).

The National Centers for Environmental Prediction (NCEP)'s operational meteorological forecast products of Global Forecast System (GFS) are used as a backup when NAM products are not available. CIOFS uses NCEP's Global Real-Time Ocean Forecast System (G-RTOFS) to produce lateral ocean open boundary conditions of water temperature, salinity and sub-tidal water levels, and Navy's operational global Hybird Coordinate Ocean Model (HYCOM) is used as a backup of RTOFS when RTOFS is not available. ADCIRC 2001 Tidal Database is used to generate CIOFS tidal open boundary forcing. Additionally, USGS real-time river discharge observations from 12 major river gauges are used to drive the model. The CIOFS uses orthogonal grid. Its horizontal resolution ranges from 10 m within the estuaries and navigational channels to 3.5 km near offshore waters.

The vertical grid follows the terrain and consists of 30 sigma levels. Model bathymetry is populated from the best available data which include NOS sounding data, NGDC and NGS shoreline data, USGS topography gridded product. Digital Elevation Map (DEM) was used for wetting/drying process. CIOFS runs on NOAA's High Performance Computing Systems (HPCS), the Weather Climate Operational Supercomputer System (WCOSS) under the NOS shared standard Coastal Ocean Modeling Framework (COMF) developed by CO-OPS. As a result, CIOFS has direct access to NWS operational meteorological products and real-time observations that are required to run CIOFS reliably. CIOFS runs four times (00z, 06z, 12z, and 18z UTC) per day with 6-hour nowcasts and 48-hour forecasts for each cycle.

COPERNICUS_GLOBAL_C

The Copernicus Global Operational Forecast is run and delivered by Copernicus Marine Environment Monitoring Service (CMEMS). CMEMS is the European Earth observation and monitoring program, which provides oceanographic products and services from in-situ measurement, remotely sensed images and model output, to end- users or service providers including maritime safety, coastal and marine environment, weather and climate forecasting, and marine resources. The forecasting system is based on version 3.1 of the Nucleus for European Modelling of the Ocean (NEMO) ocean model. The bathymetry used in the system is a combination of two different databases. For regions deeper than 300 m ETOPO1 dataset is used while in shallow water (depth < 200m) GEBCO 8. Depth was linearly interpolated between 200 and 300m depth. The atmospheric fields for forcing the ocean model comes from the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts (ECMWF) Integrated Forecast System. A 3-hour sampling of the atmospheric variables is used to reproduce the diurnal cycle, which includes wind speed, surface air temperature, humidity, mean sea level pressure, downward longwave and shortwave radiative fluxes, and rainfall. Data assimilation for the modeling includes in-situ data of vertical profiles of temperature and salinity, and satellite data of sea level anomaly, sea surface temperature and sea ice concentration. http://marine.copernicus.eu/

Doppio_Rutgers_C

The Rutgers University runs the "Doppio" Regional Ocean Modeling System (ROMS) for the Mid-Atlantic Bight and Gulf of Maine region for MARACOOS. The "Doppio" model, a successor to the Espresso model, has a regular grid of 7 km in the horizontal and 40 terrain-following vertical levels. The thickness of the surface layer ranges from 0.13 m at the inshore edge (5-m depth) to 6.2 meters at the offshore edge of the model. Doppio wind and surface heat flux forcing is from 12-km NCEP NAM model. Tidal harmonic forcing is from the Oregon State University TPXO model. River inputs are daily averages from USGS and Water Service of Canada gauges adjusted statistically for ungauged portions of the watershed. Doppio’s open ocean boundary data is from the European Mercator-Ocean forecast from the Copernicus Marine Environmental Monitoring Service with adjustments to reduce bias based using a regional climatology. The 4D variational (4D-Var) data assimilation method is applied to observations of: surface currents from HF-radar total vectors; in-situ temperature and salinity from IOOS gliders, NMFS fisheries surveys and all platforms reporting to the GTS (Argo profilers, XBT temperature profiles, NDBC buoys, and ships of opportunity); plus satellite sea surface height and temperature.

GIOPS_C

The Global Ice Ocean Prediction System (GIOPS) provides global ice and ocean analyses and 10 day forecasts daily at 00GMT on a 1/4° resolution grid. The model has 50 levels ranging from 1 m to 250 m thickness at depth. GIOPS includes a full multivariate ocean data assimilation system that combines satellite observations of sea level anomaly and sea surface temperature (SST) together with in situ observations of temperature and salinity. In situ observations are obtained from a variety of sources including: the Argo network of autonomous profiling floats, moorings, ships of opportunity, marine mammals and research cruises. Ocean analyses are blended with sea ice analyses that combine satellite retrievals of sea ice concentration with Daily Ice Charts and RADARSAT image analyses produced by the Canadian Ice Service. Atmospheric fluxes for 10 day forecasts are calculated using fields from the Global Deterministic Prediction System. Ice and ocean forecast and analysis products from GIOPS are: sea surface height (m), water temperature (°C), water salinity (psu), currents (m/s), sea ice fraction (%), snow depth on sea ice (m), ice thickness (m), ice drift velocity (m/s), Ice pressure (N/m).

Guam_UHI_C

The PacIOOS’ Regional Ocean Modeling System (ROMS) is run by the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa. It provides a 6-day, 3-hourly forecast for the region surrounding the Mariana Islands, including Guam and the main islands of the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands (CNMI), at approximately 2-km (1.2-mile) resolution. The forecast is run daily and gets updated on this website around 9:30 AM Chamorro Standard Time (UTC+10) every morning. Boundary conditions are provided by the wider ROMS model for the region surrounding the Western North Pacific (roms_mari) at approximately 4-km resolution. Atmospheric forcing is generated by the Weather Research and Forecasting (WRF) model for the Mariana Islands (wrf_guam) at approximately 3-km resolution. Tide forcing uses the Oregon State University (OSU) Tidal Prediction Software (OTPS) TOPEX/Poseidon global inverse solution (TPXO) to derive barotropic tidal elevation and velocity. All available observations, over the previous 3 days, are assimilated to improve the model estimate of the current ocean state before forecasts are run. Assimilated observations may include satellite-based sea surface temperatures from MODIS, AVHRR, or OSTIA; satellite-based sea surface height from AVISO; and in-situ water temperature and salinity profiles from ARGO floats.

Hawaii_UHI_C

ROMS (Regional Ocean Modeling System) for the Hawaiian Island region is run by the University of Hawaii for PacIOOS. The Hawaii ROMS has a regular grid of 4 km in the horizontal and 32 terrain-following vertical levels. The thickness of the surface layer is interpolated to constant layer thickness of 0.25 meters. The Hawaii ROMS is nested inside the Navy’s global HYCOM model, and uses global HYCOM for its outer open boundaries for temperature, salinity, currents. There are 11 principal tidal constituents and 3 higher level tidal constitutions that come from interactions. Wind forcing of the surface layers are from a locally run 6 km weather model. All available observations collected for the past 3 days are assimilated into the nowcast field (ocean gliders, Argo sub-surface floats, HF radar surface currents, and satellite data). Additional information can be found at: http://oos.soest.hawaii.edu/pacioos/focus/modeling/roms.php

Kaneohe_UHI_C

Regional Ocean Modeling System (ROMS) 3-day, hourly forecast and 3-day, hourly hindcast for the region surrounding Kaneohe Bay on the windward (eastern) shore of the island of Oahu at approximately 100-m resolution. Resolution decreases to 1.5-km at the periphery. Boundary conditions provided by the wider ROMS model for the region surrounding the main Hawaiian Islands (roms_hiig) at approximately 4-km resolution.

Wave forcings generated by the Simulating WAves Nearshore (SWAN) regional wave model for the island of Oahu (swan_oahu) at approximately 500-m resolution. Atmospheric forcing generated by the Weather Research and Forecasting (WRF) model for the region surrounding the island of Oahu (wrf_oa) at approximately 1.5-km resolution. Tide forcing uses the Oregon State University (OSU) Tidal Prediction Software (OTPS)

TOPEX/Poseidon global inverse solution (TPXO) to derive barotropic tidal elevation and velocity. Data are assimilated over the previous 3 days using all available observations to improve the model estimate of current ocean state (its nowcast) before forecasts are run. Assimilated observations may include satellite-based sea surface temperatures from MODIS, AVHRR, or OSTIA; satellite-based sea surface height from AVISO; surface currents from PacIOOS high-frequency radios (HFR); river transport from USGS stream gauges; and in-situ water temperature and salinity profiles from ARGO floats and ocean glider autonomous underwater vehicles (AUV). While considerable effort has been made to implement all model components in a thorough, correct, and accurate manner, numerous sources of error are possible. As such, please use these data with the caution appropriate for any ocean related activity.

L_Champlain_GLERL_C

Lake Champlain is a binational lake bordered by New York on the west side, Vermont on the east side, and Quebec in the north. In recent years, severe floods caused by intense rain events and spring runoff caused significant destruction of property and infrastructure in the Lake Champlain Basin. In addition, high lake water levels provided conditions for more shoreline destruction by wind waves and storm surges that build over the long north-south fetch of the lake. In 2016, the International Joint Commission began a 5-Year study to explore solutions to flooding in the binational Lake Champlain-Richelieu River system. The study was prompted by the record flood of 2011. To improve predictions of future flood events, a flood forecasting system was developed for the Lake Champlain-Richelieu River basin. The system resolves river- and wind-driven spatial variability in water levels, surface waves, and the associated extent of coastal inundation, thus improving upon an existing one-dimensional model that is currently used for forecasting by the NWS Northeast River Forecast Center (NERFC).

Lake Champlain flood forecasting system couples state-of-the-art hydrologic, hydrodynamic, and wave models. The system resolves wind-driven spatial variability in water levels, surface waves, and the associated extent of coastal inundation. The modeling framework couples the National Water Model (NWM) to a three-dimensional hydrodynamic model based on the Finite Volume Community Ocean Model (FVCOM), with atmospheric forcing (wind and overlake precipitation) from the NOAA High-Resolution Rapid Refresh (HRRR) and Global Forecasting System (GFS) operational models. HRRR is used for the nowcast and first two days of the forecast, GFS is used for the remainder of the 5-day forecast. Wind waves are predicted by an application of the WAVEWATCH III spectral wave model, with wetting/drying in floodplain areas informed by FVCOM. The nowcast is updated four times per day, running at 00:00, 06:00, 12:00, and 18:00 UTC. A 5-day forecast is produced once per day from 00:00 UTC.

L_Erie_NOS_FVCOM_C, L_MichHuron_NOS_FVCOM_C, L_Ontario_NOS_ NOS_C, L_Superior_NOS_FVCOM _C, L_Erie_GLERL_FVCOM_C, L_MichHuron_GLERL_FVCOM_C, L_Ontario_GLERL_FVCOM_C, L_Superior_GLERL_FVCOM _C

NOAA's National Ocean Service (NOS) and their Great Lakes Environmental Research Laboratory (GLERL) both run numerical models for each of the five Great Lakes. NOS runs the operational Great Lakes models and GLERL runs developmental models. At the present time, the significant difference is that GLERL’s models during the winter months reduce the coverage to account for ice cover, while NOS models do not. Therefore, during the winter, the EDS may switch from the NOS to GLERL models, and then back again in the spring time. NOS and GLERL’s Great Lake models’ horizontal and vertical grid cell sizes and minimum and maximum surface layer thickness are summarized in Table 4.

The upgraded Lake Erie Operational Forecast System (LEOFS) and Lake Mich-Huron Operational Forecast System (LMHOFS) were jointly developed by NOAA/National Ocean Service's (NOS) Center for Operational Oceanographic Products and Services (CO-OPS) and Office of Coast Survey (OCS), the Great Lakes Environmental Research Laboratory (GLERL), the NOAA/National Weather Service's (NWS) National Centers for Environmental Prediction (NCEP) National Central Operations (NCO), and the University of Massachusetts-Dartmouth. LEOFS and LMHOFS use the Finite Volume Community Ocean Model (FVCOM) and are run by National Ocean Service (NOS), NOAA 4 times per day with 6-hour nowcast and 120-hour forecast for each cycle. The EDS picks up the surface currents once per day. FVCOM models use an unstructured grid of triangular elements in the horizontal, see Figure 1, and 20 sigma levels in the vertical direction.

Figure 1.

The Lake Erie NOS FVCOM grid has a minimum depth of 0.5 m and maximum depth of 62.7 m; therefore the surface layer is 1/20st the local water depth (currents are at the mid-point of the surface layer, or 0.0125 to 1.57 meters). Grid resolution varies within the model from 30 m to 2 km. The Detroit River provides inflow and momentum, while the Niagara River, the outflow, is modeled down to the head of the Niagara River near Fort Erie.

The Lake Erie FVCOM model uses NOAA hourly updated High-Resolution Rapid Refresh (HRRR) 3-km meteorology (for the nowcast) and HRRR for the 1 st 48 forecast hours, followed by the NDFD 2.5 km, re-gridded to the FVCOM’s grid for surface forcing. The HRRR (High Resolution Rapid Refresh) is a NOAA real-time 3-km resolution, hourly updated, cloud-resolving, convection-allowing atmospheric model, initialized by 3km grids with 3km radar assimilation (https://rapidrefresh.noaa.gov/hrrr/)

The Lakes Michigan and Huron NOS FVCOM model has a minimum depth of 0.5 m and maximum depth of 271.4 m, therefore the surface layer is 1/20 st the local water depth (currents are at the mid-point of the surface layer, or 0.0125 to 6.79 meters). Grid resolution varies within the model from 50 m m to 2.5 km. The combined Lakes Michigan and Huron FVCOM model uses NOAA HRRR 3-km winds (for the nowcast) and Global Forecast System (GFS) (for the forecast) winds gridded to the FVCOM’s grid for surface forcing.

NOAA's National Ocean Service (NOS) collaborated with the Great Lakes Environmental Research Laboratory (GLERL) in developing and transitioning the new generation of Lake Ontario Operational Forecast System (LOOFS) to operations, to provide higher-resolution forecast guidance of water level, currents and water temperature. The upgraded LOOFS uses the Finite Volume Community Ocean Model (FVCOM) as its core circulation model. It is coupled to unstructured grid version of Los Alamos Sea Ice Model (UG-CICE) to provide additional forecast guidance of ice concentration, ice thickness and ice velocity. The forecast horizon is extended to 120 hours The Lake Ontario NOS FVCOM model has a minimum depth of 0.5 m and maximum depth of 227.8 m, therefore the surface layer is 1/20th the local water depth (currents are at the mid-point of the surface layer, or

0.0125 to 5.69 meters). Grid resolution varies within the model from 200 m to 2.5 km. The Lake Ontario FVCOM model uses NOAA HRRR 3-km winds (for the nowcast) and Global Forecast System (GFS) (for the forecast) winds gridded to the FVCOM's grid for surface forcing.

The Lake Superior Operational Forecast System (LSOFS) was jointly developed by NOAA/National Ocean Service's (NOS) Center for Operational Oceanographic Products and Services (CO-OPS) and Office of Coast Survey (OCS), the Great Lakes Environmental Research Laboratory (GLERL), the NOAA/National Weather Service's (NWS) National Centers for Environmental Prediction (NCEP) National Central Operations (NCO), and the University of Massachusetts-Dartmouth. The new LSOFS uses the Finite Volume Community Ocean Model (FVCOM), coupled with an unstructured grid version of the Los Alamos Sea Ice model (CICE), to provide users with higher resolution of nowcast (analyses of near present) and forecast guidance of water levels, currents, water temperature, ice concentration, ice thickness and ice velocity out to 120 hours, four times per day. The Lake Superior NOS FVCOM model has a minimum depth of 0.5 m and maximum depth of 379.4 m, therefore the surface layer is 1/20th the local water depth (currents are at the mid-point of the surface layer, or 0.0125 to

9.49 meters). Grid resolution varies within the model from 200 m to 2.5 km. The Lake Superior FVCOM model uses NOAA HRRR 3-km winds (for the nowcast) and Global Forecast System (GFS) (for the forecast) winds gridded to the FVCOM's grid for surface forcing.

The NOAA Great Lakes Coastal Forecasting System (GLCFS) is being developed at NOAA GLERL through collaboration between GLERL, NOS CO-OPS and NOS CSDL. It is based on the latest version of the Finite Volume Coastal Ocean Model (FVCOM), and uses a very high horizontal resolution (30 meters – 2 km) unstructured grid (i.e., triangular shapes of adaptable size) framework. The 3rd generation enhancements include:

tracking of seasonal lake level fluctuations, inflows and outflows at major connecting channels, expanded coverage to connecting waterways (Straits of Mackinac, St. Clair River, Lake St. Clair, Detroit River, upper St.

Lawrence River). The 3rd generation GLCFS also includes a hydrodynamic model of Lake Michigan-Huron that uses observed and forecasted meteorology to predict flow and oscillating currents in the Straits of Mackinac, one of the most physically-complex areas in the Great Lakes. The FVCOM model is driven NOAA's High-Resolution Rapid Refresh model (HRRR) hourly meteorological variables, such as air temperature, dew point, cloud cover, and wind speed/direction. The HRRR is a NOAA real-time 3-km resolution, hourly updated, cloud-resolving, convection-allowing atmospheric model, initialized by 3km grids with 3km radar assimilation. Radar data is assimilated in the HRRR every 15 min over a 1-h period. The GLCFS models are run 2x per day for 72-hr (ice season) or 120-hr (non ice season) forecasts (finishing at about 05:20 and 17:20 GMT). The surface layer depth is variable due to the sigma coordinate system - 20 evenly-spaced sigma layers in the vertical. The width of each is .05 x the total depth. So for the top layer, the currents are reported at the middle of the sigma layer, or .025 x the total depth.

LIS_FVCOM_C

The Long Island Sound (LIS) operational forecast system uses the Finite Volume Community Ocean Model (FVCOM) as the hydrodynamic core to simulate ocean circulation in the sound. The model domain covers the sound and the adjacent shelf from east of Narragansett Bay down to the New Jersey coast. The horizontal resolution in the sound is less than 500 m. Vertically, there are 10 terrain-following σ layers, with a minimum water depth of 7 m. The hourly surface forcing (winds and heat flux) and boundary forcing are obtained from the Northeast Coastal Ocean Forecast System (NECOFS) daily. To better simulate the tides in the sound, the NECOFS boundary elevations are detided to only supply the averaged shelf elevation; the tides are added through the open boundary with 67 tidal constituents. The operational high resolution model spins up 24 hours from the previous day and forecasts the next 72 hours. It offers the hourly output of water level, currents, salinity, and temperature fields.

Maine_FVCOM_UMass_C

Finite Volume Community Ocean Model (FVCOM) covers the coastal waters extending from the Delmar peninsula northeast to the northeast tip of Nova Scotia. FVCOM Maine uses an unstructured grid in the horizontal and a sigma coordinate with 41 layers in the vertical. The horizontal resolution ranges from ~200 m in Nantucket Sound to a maximum of 10-20 km along the open boundary in the deep ocean off Georges Bank. FVCOM Maine uses a hybrid vertical coordinate system. In water depths shallower than 200 meters, the thickness of the top layer is equal to the ratio of local water depth to the total number of vertical layers, which ranges from 5 m at a depth of 200 m to 0.5 m or less in the region with the water depth of 20 m or shallower. The model time step is 240 seconds. The surface wind forcing is predicted using a regional mesoscale weather model (WRF/NAM) with 9 x 9 km spacing. FVCOM Maine includes a surface wave forecast (significant wave height and peak period) in addition to the surface elevation and 3D currents, temperature and salinity forecast. The freshwater inflow from 46 major rivers are specified along the coastline. FVCOM Maine is run as part of the NERACOOS Northeast Coastal Ocean Forecast System (NECOFS) produced by the Marine Ecosystem Dynamics Modeling Laboratory (MEDML) at the School for Marine Science and Technology, University of Massachusetts-Dartmouth.

MassBay_FVCOM_UMass_C

Finite Volume Community Ocean Model (FVCOM) covers the coastal waters extending from the Merrimack River (north of Cape Ann) clockwise around Cape Cod, Nantucket and Martha’s Vineyard Islands east to Narragansett Bay. FVCOM Mass Bay uses an unstructured grid in the horizontal and a sigma coordinate with 10 layers in the vertical. The horizontal resolution ranges from 20 m in Boston Harbor to a maximum of 500 m along the open boundary in the western Gulf of Maine and eastern New England shelf. FVCOM Mass Bay uses a hybrid vertical coordinate system; in water depths greater than 20 meters, the top three layers are each 2 meters thick, and the remaining layers follow the topography. In water depths less than 20 meters; the layers are 1/10th the water depth. Therefore, the surface layers vary from 2 meters in water depths of 20 meters or greater down to as little as 0.01 meters at the wet/dry inshore boundary of the model. The model time step is 2.4 seconds. The surface wind forcing is predicted using a regional mesoscale weather model (WRF/NAM) with 9 x 9 km spacing. FVCOM Mass Bay includes an unstructured-grid version of SWAN (called SWAVE) to provide a surface wave forecast in addition to the surface elevation and 3D currents, temperature and salinity forecast. The open boundary conditions are provided by NERACOOS Northeast Coastal Ocean Forecast System (NECOFS). The freshwater inflow from 47 major rivers are specified along the Mass coastline. FVCOM Mass Coastal Waters does not include ice coverage. FVCOM Mass Bay is run as part of the NECOFS produced by the Marine Ecosystem Dynamics Modeling Laboratory (MEDML) at the School for Marine Science and Technology, University of Massachusetts-Dartmouth.

NCOM_AmSeas_C, NCOM_Alaska_C, NCOM_Hawaii_C, NCOM_SoCAL_C, NCOM_USec_C The U.S. Navy Coastal Ocean Model (NCOM) was developed by the Naval Research Laboratory (NRL) and is maintained by the U.S. Navy Fleet Numerical Meteorology and Oceanography Center (FNMOC).

NCOM regional ocean prediction system data are available for the Gulf of Mexico and Caribbean, Alaska, Hawaii, Southern California and U.S. East Coast. Atmospheric forcing fields for these regional domains are provided by 15-km applications of the Navy's Coupled Ocean/Air Mesoscale Prediction System (COAMPS) model. Ocean temperature, salinity, eastward and northward currents, and elevation, along with sea surface atmospheric information are included in the NCOM model data. Boundary conditions are applied from the operational 1/12 th degree global Hybrid Coordinate Ocean Model (HYCOM). The Navy Coupled Ocean Data Assimilation System (NCODA) provides data assimilation for NCOM including satellite sea surface temperature and altimetry, as well as surface and profile temperature and salinity data. The Regional NCOM models have high-resolution, generating ocean current data at approximately 2NM (3.7 km) resolution (1/30 deg) every 24 hours (see Table 1. for accurate resolution in the AOI).

In particular, NCOM_USec_C: covers the U.S. East Coast and has improved resolution and coverage of the Gulf Stream, NCOM_AmSeas_C: covers the Gulf of Mexico and Caribbean Seas, NCOM_Alaska_C: covers NE Pacific / Alaska (this model extends into the US Pacific Northwest, which is unusual for these ocean current models. Initial indications are that this model is able to capture some of the tidal current streams; note that the NCOM forecast data is available every three hours, so it is likely to miss the timing of changes of direction and is unlikely to hit max/min current speeds), NCOM_Hawaii_C: covers the 5 main Hawaiian Islands and the surrounding area. NCOM_SoCal_C: covers Southern California.

No_GoMex_FVCOM_NOS2_C

The new Northern Gulf of Mexico Operational Forecast System (NGOFS2) is run by National Ocean Service (NOS) on NOAA’s Weather Climate Operational Supercomputing System (WCOSS).