Description:

In a 2018 report to Congress, a task force of government experts defined the phrase “extreme maritime weather” as “wind and wave conditions that pose a threat to life and property to all vessels.”  While these events do impact vessels, crews, cargoes, and maritime operations, extreme maritime weather can threaten coastlines and communities as well. Extreme maritime weather events come in many forms and include tropical cyclones, extratropical cyclones, extreme waves, tsunamis, wind and current interactions, vessel ice accretion, sea ice freeze up, melt, drift and ridging, coastal inundation, ocean heat waves, and many more.  Impacts can be as varied as storm-induced precipitation leading to extreme coastal inundation; enhanced low-level shear damaging a wind farm; to seasonal changes in sea ice coverage and thickness altering indigenous fishing grounds. At the same time, the global reliance on ocean-centric industries of the Blue Economy, such as shipping, fishing, aquaculture, and renewable energy, is rapidly increasing.     

Understanding these events and impacts comes from improved earth system prediction at weather, sub-seasonal, and seasonal time scales. This requires a fusion of traditional disciplines as predictive systems to transition to fully coupled atmosphere and ocean exchanges. Observations of the ocean and atmosphere to enhance understanding, verify coupled data assimilation schemes, and support improved prediction have never been more critical. Observations of earth system components and interactions are key, especially as coupled systems become operational to improve predictions of the specific extreme events and extend earth system forecast skill. Remotely sensed data such as satellite-based, airborne, and autonomous atmosphere and ocean systems have and continue to contribute much to decrease the operational and research challenges over the global ocean and in extreme weather environments. Coincident measurements that quantify the exchanges of heat, moisture, and momentum and reveal the specifics of the associated physical mechanisms within the interfaces and mediums at critical small scales are currently being planned for tropical cyclones, but require further refinement and are also valuable for other extreme events.

Public Met-Ocean services provide critical warning and forecast information that enhance safety.  However, just as critical is the role of the private sector by providing specificity for key operational and vessel dependent criteria and conditions. Examples of both public and private sector Met-Ocean services of today and the future are encouraged to provide these criteria, such as weather routing, vessel specific performance monitoring of waves and wave response, and port monitoring and prediction.       

This session is intended to cast a wide net with a common focus on extreme weather events over the oceans and coasts with an earth system perspective of observations, prediction systems, services, and impacts. A key goal of this Symposium and session is to enhance a metocean focus within the AMS community in support of the growing Blue Economy with participation from the private, public, academic sectors, and underserved communities.