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. Published in Oceanography, NOPP Special Issue, v22 n2 p64-75, Jun 2009. Prepared in collaboration with Naval Research Laboratory (NRL), Stennis Space Center, MS; QinetiQ North America-Technology Solutions Group, Stennis Space Center, MS; Atlantic Oceanographic and Meteorological Laboratory, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), Miami, FL; Goddard Institute for Space Studies, National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), New York, NY; Service Hydrographique et Oceanographique de la Marine, Toulouse, France; Environmental Modeling Center, NOAA, Camp Springs, MD; Rosenstiel School of Marine and Atmospheric Science, University of Miami, Miami, FL; Pacific Marine Environmental Laboratory, NOAA, Seattle, WA; Graduate School of Oceanography, University of Rhode Island, Narragansett, RI; University of Liege, Liege, Belgium; Department of Marine, Earth and Atmospheric Sciences, North Carolina State University, Raleigh, NC; and Institute of Marine and Coastal Sciences, Rutgers University, New Brunswick, NJ. The original document contains color images. All DTIC reproductions will be in black and white.