Exploiting Shipborne Radar for Ship-Following COAMPS Rapid Environmental Assessment

Fleet Numerical Meteorology and Oceanography Center (FNMOC), under the direction of the Commander, Naval Meteorology and Oceanography Command, has the mission to operate global and limited-area meteorological and oceanographic numerical weather prediction (NWP) models in support of the US Department of Defense in operations, exercises, humanitarian assistance, and disaster relief. A new feature for the US Navy’s operational limited-area Coupled Ocean/Atmosphere Mesoscale Prediction System (COAMPS^®) model is Ship-Following COAMPS^®. This capability allows for the model’s inner nests to move from forecast to forecast and stay centered on a ship, all while keeping warm-start conditions. Ship location is determined from a variety of methods, including the shipborne SPS-48/Hazardous Weather Detection and Display Capability (HWDDC). The COAMPS^® - On demand System (COAMPS-OS^®) assimilates the SPS-48/HWDDC shipboard radar data along with the Next-Generation Radar (NEXRAD) land-based radar. To assimilate the latest radar data, COAMPS-OS^® is run in Rapid Environmental Assessment (REA) mode, in which radar is assimilated and a short-term forecast is run on an hourly basis. An overview of operational Ship-Following COAMPS^® REA capabilities is presented.

Approved for Public Release, Distribution is Unlimited. The views expressed in this article are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the Department of the Navy, Department of Defense, nor the U.S. Government. COAMPS and COAMPS-OS are registered trademarks of the Naval Research Laboratory.