The Integrated Ocean Project

.A detailed knowledge and predictive capability of near-shore waves and currents is required for successful military operations in coastal regions. However, complex interactions in the surf zone, shallow water, and at the interface between sea, air and land environments make characterization and prediction of the littoral battlefield difficult. This is particularly true in foreign lands where data tends to be limited. Because the littoral environment is governed by a high degree of complexity and characterized by rapid change, an integrated approach to modeling ocean dynamics is required for simulating ocean processes important to military decision-making and training maneuvers.

The Integrated Ocean Program (IOP), under the auspices of the Office of the Ocean Executive Agent, has been developing a system for providing authoritative representations of the ocean environment. The IOP program consists of two main efforts, the Integrated Ocean Representation (IOR) and the Integrated Ocean Architecture (IOA). The IOR consists of a suite of authoritative oceanographic models that can provide surf zone representation for different applications. These models are being integrated into the IOA to provide an easy-to-use simulation framework for setting up and running simulations of the ocean environment. In this presentation we will give an overview of the complete IOP effort and provide examples of how the IOP is being used to support the operational community