Wave Component Updates for the Future GFSv17

The current Global Forecast System (GFSv16) contains a one-way coupled atmosphere to wave model. The future GFSv17 model will be a coupled atmosphere, land, ocean, ice, and wave model which will include wave feedback to the atmosphere and ocean models. The GFSv17 coupled model is developed as part of the Unified Forecast System and the wave component is the WAVEWATCH III model. For the wave model specifically, targeted improvements are moving to an unstructured grid, which will allow for the possibility of variable and higher grid resolutions and improving wave forecasts in high wave scenarios. We will examine how the wave model is performing in recent high resolution prototypes being conducted to benchmark the model performance in free-forecasts spread over various seasons targeted for GFSv17 development.