Global Real Time Ocean Forecasting System (RTOFS)

The global operational Real-Time Ocean Forecast System (Global RTOFS) at the National Centers for Environmental Prediction is based on an eddy resolving 1/12° global HYCOM (HYbrid Coordinates Ocean Model) and is part of a larger national backbone capability of ocean modeling at the National Weather Service in a strong partnership with the US Navy.

Nowcast/Forecast Viewer	Data Access	Metrics
Gulf Stream Location	WOCE Sections	About the Model

NOAA WAVEWATCH III^®

A third generation wave model run four times a day (00Z, 06Z, 12Z, and 18Z). Each run starts with 9-, 6- and 3-hour hindcasts and produces forecasts of every 3 hours from the initial time out to 180 hours (84 hours for the Great Lakes).

Model Suite

• Global
• Hurricane Waves
• Great Lakes
• NCEP Wave Ensemble
• NCEP/FNMOC Wave Ensemble
• Nearshore Wave Prediction System

Sea Ice Home Page

The Polar and Great Lakes Ice group works on sea ice analysis from satellite, sea ice modeling, and ice-atmosphere-ocean coupling. Our work supports the Alaska Region of the National Weather Service, the Great Lakes Marine Forecasting group in the Cleveland NWSFO, and other groups, as well as the Environmental Modeling Center, of which the ice group is a part.

Marine Meteorology Group Products

• Ocean Winds - Satellite Remote Sensing:
  Sensors: SSM/I and QuikSCAT
  Products: wind speeds, wind vectors, atmospheric water vapor & liquid water concentrations

Marine Archive

• Fukushima Tracers
  NCEP/NWS deployed three-dimensional particle tracing within our Global RTOFS system to predict the long-term movement of radionuclides in the ocean shortly after the Japanese nuclear disaster near Fukushima.
• Fukushima Surface Plume Study
  NCEP/NWS conducted a surface plume study using data from our Global RTOFS system to predict the first 100 days of movement of radionuclides in the ocean shortly after the Japanese nuclear disaster near Fukushima.