COASTAL FORECAST SYSTEM -- CALIFORNIA REGION

 

ISSUE

Daily operational activities, management decisions, long-range planning, and regulation in the coastal zone typically require knowledge of a myriad of environmental conditions, including weather, water levels, waves, currents, water temperature, chemical composition, and biology. Over the past 30 years major strides have been made in weather observing and prediction, yet we do not have an equivalent forecast system in place for the unique variations in weather or corresponding responses in the coastal ocean. On the California coast, physical processes have a major impact on environmental, chemical and biological processes, influencing activities such as water supply management, waste water management, commercial shipping, commercial fishing, recreational boating and fishing and shoreline erosion. Planners and managers of California's coastal resources, such as commercial developers and state coastal zone managers, need more information and better predictions of these physical processes.

 

APPROACH

COP will develop a Coastal Forecast System demonstration for the West Coast region (beginning in California) that, based on user requirements, will improve the regional observation suite, establish a three-dimensional coupled atmospheric-ocean prediction model for operational testing and validation, and initiate assimilation of real-time data into the model system. A regional network of sensors to provide real-time information on vertical current structure, water level, temperature, salinity, and surface weather will be developed. Both the modeling and observation network will build on the extensive experience and investment already made by NOAA, the Navy, other Federal agencies, the state of California, academia and private industry. Development of improved technologies to provide direct measurements of the heat, moisture, and momentum exchanged between the oceans and atmosphere will be started to improve sensing of the lower atmosphere for use in coupled ocean-atmosphere models. Other research efforts will focus on algorithm development for short-term forecasts of water level, temperature, salinity and currents using real-time information.

This effort, typical of COP's projects, will be funded over a 4-6 year project life cycle. Actual funding and investigators for this project will be determined by completion and approval of the project design and competitive peer-review.

 

Last Updated: August 22, 2001