East Coast Community Ocean Forecast System (ECCOFS)

Data coverage

The East Coast Community Ocean Forecast System (ECCOFS) is a data assimilating ocean analysis and forecast system being developed by Rutgers University, the University of California Santa Cruz, Fathom Science Inc., and the National Ocean Service (NOS) of NOAA for transition to operations at NCEP in 2028. The ECCOFS domain spans the eastern seaboard of North America and Intra-Americas Seas from the Grand Banks of Newfoundland in the north to the mouth of the Orinoco River, Venezuela, in the south. ECCOFS will complement the existing WCOFS (West Coast Operational Forecast System) to achieve complete forecast coverage of U.S. territorial seas adjacent to the 48 contiguous states and Puerto Rico. Each day ECCOFS generates an ocean analysis using the Regional Ocean Modeling System (ROMS) 4-Dimensional Variational (4D-Var) data assimilation (DA) system constrained by ocean observations. The forecast resolution is 3 km in the horizontal at 50 vertical terrain-following levels. A more detailed overview is presented here. The meteorological forcing data are marine boundary layer conditions (air temperature, humidity, pressure), net shortwave radiation, and downward longwave radiation at 1-hourly intervals from the NWS High Resolution Rapid Refresh (HRRR) 4-km, 48-hour forecast for the northwest Atlantic Ocean and western Caribbean Sea. In regions beyond the HRRR domain, and in forecast days 3 to 5, the NWS GFS (Global Forecast System) forecast is adopted. Sub-tidal frequency open boundary conditions are drawn from the Copernicus Marine Service Global Ocean Physics Analysis and Forecast (GLOBALANALYSISFORECASTPHY001024). These data are augmented by boundary harmonic barotropic tidal forcing from the Oregon State University TPXO analysis (12 harmonic constituents, adjusted for the 18.6-year nodal cycle). Luni-solar gravitational tide generating forces for 7 constituents are imposed in the ECCOFS domain interior. Daily average forecast river discharge data from the Global Flood Awareness System (GloFAS) river routing model of ECMWF precipitation set freshwaiter inflows at 93 rivers where annual mean discharge exceeds 50 m3/s. More details on the forward model configuration are presented here. Observations presently assimilated include satellite sea level and temperature, and in situ temperature and salinity from moorings, drifters, profiling floats, autonomous underwater vehicles, ships of opportunity, and sensors affixed to fishing gear. When fully configured, ECCOFS will also assimilate satellite salinity, ocean surface currents measured by land-based high-frequency radars, and temperature data from animal tags. Recognizing that oceanic conditions that can be meaningfully constrained by existing observing networks have length scales much greater than the forecast model resolution of 3 km, ECCOFS employs a Mixed Resolution assimilation approach wherein the ocean forecast is computed on the 3-km grid, but the iterations of the Tangent Linear (TL) and Adjoint (AD) model inner loops of 4D-Var are computed on a lower resolution (6-km) grid that demands less time for execution. The control variables of the assimilation are the initial conditions (at day 0 minus 3) and time varying boundary conditions (over 3 days). More details on the assimilation methodology are presented here.

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