The Southern California Bight (SCB) ocean forecasting system is based on the Regional Ocean Modeling System (ROMS). The ROMS configuration used consists of a single domain covering the southern California coastal ocean from Santa Barbara to San Diego at a resolution of 1 km.

The Prince William Sound (PWS) ocean forecasting system is based on the Regional Ocean Modeling System (ROMS). The ROMS configuration consists of three-level nested domains covering the northeast Pacific Ocean, the northern Gulf of Alaska and the Prince William Sound at 12-km, 4-km and 1.3-km, respectively.

A daily, global Sea Surface Temperature (SST) data set is produced at 1-km (also known as ultra-high resolution) by the JPL ROMS (Regional Ocean Modeling System) group. The input SST data sets are derived from the Global High-Resolution Sea Surface Temperature (SST) Pilot Project (GHRSST-PP).

The CeNCOOS real-time wind product displays hourly wind nowcast and forecast made by the 3-km COAMPS mesoscale atmospheric model and in situ wind measurement from shore stations and moorings. The image depicts the measured (red) and model-simulated (black) surface winds. The direction the arrow points represents the direction towards which the wind blows. The length of the arrow represents the wind speed (in knots), which is also shown in color. The measurement locations are indicated by white dots. This image is updated hourly. The animation (click the link below the image) shows the surface winds during the past 48 hours and the forecast winds for the upcoming 24 hours.

In spite of recent improvements in hurricane track forecast accuracy, currently there are still many unanswered questions about the physical processes that determine hurricane genesis, intensity, track and impact on large-scale environment. Furthermore, a significant amount of work remains to be done in validating hurricane forecast models, understanding their sensitivities and improving their parameterizations. None of this can be accomplished without a comprehensive set of multiparameter observations that are relevant to both the large-scale and the storm-scale processes in the atmosphere and in the ocean.

Funded under NASA's Earth System Science Pathfinder Program, the Aquarius instrument will collect more sea surface salinity (SSS) data than have been amassed over the previous 100 years. SSS is key to understanding the water cycle because 86% of global evaporation and 78% of global precipitation occur over the oceans. Also, SSS is a critical missing parameter needed by the international climate modeling community to predict environmental change.