Western Alaska Storm Models - Alaska Ocean Observing System
Original (non-English) name
Acronym
Western Alaska Storm Models - AOOS
Citation
Abstract
Alaska’s coast is a unique and irreplaceable natural, social and economic system. The region has a complex geography and highly energetic atmospheric and ocean circulation and wind-wave conditions. This combined with the extensive continental shelf and coastal floodplain leaves many western Alaska communities vulnerable to storm surge and flooding events. Compounding the situation are strong winter storms under varying ocean ice cover that make this a uniquely challenging location for predicting and responding to flood-related hazards. Ice coverage varies dramatically both intra- and inter-annually and ice drift speeds have doubled over the past two decades due to reduced coverage, effectively increasing the atmosphere’s transfer of momentum to the water. Air-sea momentum transfer formulae in the presence of ice utilized by wave and storm surge models have improved over the years, but remain a significant source of uncertainty in models forecasting storm surge in this environment.
The integration of multiple physical processes spanning across the energy spectrum of the ocean and the application of high localized mesh resolution to correctly resolve these processes are at the heart of this project. We will couple the ADCIRC, WAVEWATCH III, Global RTOFS, and CICE models through ESMF/NUOPC to compute surge and tides, wind waves, ocean currents and sea ice properties. Each model will compute select processes/information and the linkages will inform the other models so that the combined total energy of the ocean can be much better accounted for. The high-resolution unstructured mesh ADCIRC model will cover all Alaskan waters, including the Gulf of Alaska and the Bering, Chukchi and Beaufort Seas.
This project is funded by the Integrated Ocean Observing System, Ocean Technology Transition Project Grant NOAA # NA18NOS0120164.