WAVEWATCH III®: A Transition to Navy Operations

The Naval Research Laboratory (NRL) has transitioned new operational wave model prediction capabilities to a Navy ocean forecasting center at the Naval Oceanographic Office (NAVOCEANO) to provide improved ocean wave forecasts in littoral regions in support of naval operations. This implementation of WAVEWATCH III operates in an automated system configured with a set of regional domains that optimally cover all the critical areas of the globe for the primary purpose of providing boundary conditions to the regional near-shore wave models which are either running on their own or are part of a newly transitioned version of the Coupled Ocean Atmosphere Mesoscale Prediction System (COAMPS). Regional domains are included such that wind forcing can be applied from associated domains of the currently operational COAMPS model run at Fleet Numerical and Oceanography Center (FNMOC) to exploit a feature that allows energy generated within regions to propagate out of their domains into the larger domains surrounding them. This modelling system runs on high performance computing platforms at the Department of Defense Supercomputing Resource Center which is shared by both NRL and NAVOCEANO thus facilitating the transition. Model runs have been evaluated during real-time trial periods and show good results improving upon previous modelling capabilities. In addition, we evaluate the conditions which are appropriate for including smaller domain coverage, whether the increased resolution is worth the cost and effort. Future plans for model improvements will also be described.