US GODAE: Global Ocean Prediction with the HYbrid Coordinate Ocean Model (HYCOM)

During the past five to ten years, a broad partnership of institutions under NOPP sponsorship has collaborated in developing and demonstrating the performance and application of eddy-resolving, real-time global- and basin-scale ocean prediction systems using the HYbrid Coordinate Ocean Model (HYCOM). The partnership represents a broad spectrum of the oceanographic community, bringing together academia, federal agencies, and industry/commercial entities, and spanning modeling, data assimilation, data management and serving, observational capabilities, and application of HYCOM prediction system outputs. In addition to providing real-time, eddy-resolving global- and basin-scale ocean prediction systems for the US Navy and NOAA, this project also offered an outstanding opportunity for NOAA-Navy collaboration and cooperation, ranging from research to the operational level. This paper provides an overview of the global HYCOM ocean prediction system and highlights some of its achievements. An important outcome of this effort is the capability of the global system to provide boundary conditions to even higher-resolution regional and coastal models.