Nearly 40% of the US population lives in what is considered coastal regions. The economic
services of the coastal regions such as shipping, tourism, fisheries, an industry constitute a
significant portion of the economy. US waters and exclusive economic zones are characterized by their diversity: from sub-tropical islands (e.g., Hawaii), eastern and western boundary currents (west and east coasts of the continental US), sub-Arctic (e.g., Bering Sea) to the Arctic shelf (e.g., Chukchi Sea). At the same time many of the coastal regions are susceptible to extreme weather events. Providing accurate forecasts to these regions is paramount for the safety of the population and for the economic vitality of coastal areas.
In coastal regions, improving the ocean component of the forecast system can lead both to
improved weather forecasts and estimates of impacts such as the ones resulting from storm surge and precipitation events. In this talk we describe the development and implementation of regional ocean modeling capabilities using the NOAA GFDL MOM6 ocean circulation model. We describe a strategy for a robust and holistic coastal and regional modeling capacity that leverages sustained NOAA investments in ocean model development at the Geophysical Fluid Dynamics Laboratory. The strategy is designed to provide a lasting and improved capability for fundamental process studies and weather and subseasonal-to-seasonal predictions in coastal systems.
