Development of model-based regional nowcasting/forecasting systems

The National Ocean Service is developing nowcast/forecast systems for bays and harbors using numerical oceanographic models forced with real-time data and with forecast wind fields from atmospheric models. This effort presently involves regional high-resolution hydrodynamic numerical models of Chesapeake Bay, Galveston Bay, and the Port of New York and New Jersey, with forecast boundary conditions provided by either an East Coast ocean model, a Gulf of Mexico ocean model, or an individual shelf model, each driven by forecasts from the NWS ETA weather model. Nowcasts and 24-hour forecasts of water level and/or currents are presently produced twice daily and presented in graphical from on a WWW Home Page for evaluation purposes