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-------- Original Message --------
597
NOUS41 KWBC 181244
PNSWSH
Technical Implementation Notice 13-41
NOAAs National Ocean Service Headquarters Washington DC
Related by National Weather Service Washington DC
745 AM EST Mon Nov 18 2013
To: Subscribers:
-Family of Services
-NOAA Weather Wire Service
-Emergency Managers Weather Information Network
-NOAAPORT
Other NWS and NOS partners and NWS and NOS employees
From: Peter Stone
Chief, Oceanographic Division
NOS Center for Operational Oceanographic Products
and Services (CO-OPS)
Subject: Implementation of National Ocean Services new
Oceanographic Forecast Modeling System for the San
Francisco Bay, Effective January 28, 2014
Effective January 28, 2014 beginning at 15z Coordinated Universal
Time (UTC), 10:00 AM EST, the NOAA/National Ocean Service San
Francisco Bay Operational Forecast System (SFBOFS) will be
implemented on NOAAs Weather Climate Operational Supercomputing
System (WCOSS) operated by NCEP Central Operations (NCO). SFBOFS
will now provide users with nowcasts (analyses of near present)
and forecast guidance of the three-dimensional physical
conditions of the San Francisco Bay, including surface water
levels and 3-D water currents, water temperature, and salinity
out to 48 hours.
As its core ocean prediction model, SFBOFS uses the Finite Volume
Coastal Ocean Model (FVCOM) developed jointly by the University
of Massachusetts, Dartmouth, and the Woods Hole Oceanographic
Institution. FVCOM is a prognostic, unstructured-grid, finite-
volume, free-surface, 3-D primitive equation coastal ocean model.
It has a horizontal grid comprised of unstructured triangular
cells in which the irregular bottom is presented using
generalized terrain-following coordinates.
The SFBOFS grid consists of 54,120 nodes and 102,264 elements and
includes the near shelf from Point Reyes (north) to Point San
Pedro (south), the entrance of San Francisco Bay, and the
complete bay system (Suisin Bay, San Pablo Bay and Central and
South Bays). Grid resolution ranges from 39 km near the offshore
open ocean boundary to approximately 100 m near the coast,
indicating the flexibility of the grid size based on bathymetry
from the deep ocean to the coast. Additionally, the higher
resolution along the navigational channels within the bays, from
approximately 100 m to 10 m, provides detailed current features.
SFBOFS operates within the NOS Coastal Ocean Modeling Framework
(COMF) and has four daily nowcast and forecast cycles at 03, 09,
15 and 21 UTC.
For the SFBOFS nowcast cycle, the meteorological forcing is
provided by the nested, high resolution (4 km) NCEP North
American Mesoscale (NAM) weather prediction model. River
discharge and stage are estimated using near real-time
observations from U.S. Geological Survey river gauges.
Oceanographic conditions of subtidal water levels, water
temperature and salinity on the SFBOFS lateral open boundary on
the shelf are estimated based on forecast guidance from the
Global Real-Time Ocean Forecast System (G-RTOFS) and adjusted by
real-time observations at NOS water level gauges. Tides are
derived from a regional tidal model of the northeast Pacific
Ocean developed by Dr. Mike Foreman. The Navys Hybrid Coordinate
Ocean Model (HYCOM) and the NWS Extra-Tropical Storm Surge (ETSS)
Model are used as a backup if G-RTOFS is not available.
For the SFBOFS forecast cycle, the meteorological forcing is
provided by the nested, high resolution (4 km) NCEP North
American Mesoscale (NAM) weather prediction model. River
discharge and stage are estimated by persistence of the most
recent near real-time observations from U.S. Geological Survey
river gauges. Oceanographic conditions of subtidal water levels,
water temperature and salinity on the SFBOFS lateral open
boundary on the shelf are estimated based on forecast guidance
from G-RTOFS. Tides are derived from Dr. Foremans northeast
Pacific Ocean tidal model. The Navys HYCOM and the NWS Extra-
Tropical Storm Surge (ETSS) Model are used as a backup if G-RTOFS
is not available.
Gridded and point forecast guidance from SFBOFS will be available
in netCDF files on the NCEP server at NOAAs Web Operations
Centers (WOC) (ftpprd.ncep.noaa.gov) in the directory
/pub/data/nccfs/com/nos/prod/sfbofs.yyyymmdd
at NOS/CO-OPS OPeNDAP server
http://opendap.co-ops.nos.noaa.gov/netcdf/
and at CO-OPS THREDDS server
http://opendap.co-ops.nos.noaa.gov/thredds/catalog.html SFBOFS output is displayed on the CO-OPS web page athttp://tidesandcurrents.noaa.gov
Additional information about SFBOFS can be found at http://www.tidesandcurrents.noaa.gov/models.html SFBOFS predictions are used by commercial and recreational mariners and fishermen, emergency managers, search and rescue operations, and NWS marine weather forecasters. The development and implementation of SFBOFS was a joint project of the NOS/Office of Coast Survey (OCS), the NOS/Center for Operational Oceanographic Products and Services (CO-OPS), NWS/NCEP/NCO, the University of Massachusetts, Dartmouth, and the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution. SFBOFS is monitored 24x7 by both NCO/NCEP and CO-OPS Continuous Real-Time Monitoring System (CORMS) personnel. If you have any questions concerning these changes, contact: Dr. Aijun Zhang NOS/CO-OPS Silver Spring, MD Email: Aijun.Zhang@xxxxxxxx or Dr. Frank Aikman Marine Modeling and Analysis Branch Coast Survey Development Laboratory NOAA/NOS/Office of Coast Survey Silver Spring, MD Email: Frank.Aikman@xxxxxxxx For questions regarding the dataflow aspects with respect to the NCEP server at the WOC, please contact: Rebecca Cosgrove NCEP/NCO Dataflow Team College Park, MD Email: ncep.list.pmb-dataflow@xxxxxxxx For questions on how to access SFBOFS digital products from CO- OPS servers please contact: NOS/CO-OPS/User Services Team Silver Spring, MD Email: tide.prediction@xxxxxxxx NWS National Technical Implementation Notices are online at:http://www.nws.noaa.gov/os/notif.htm
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