Diops: a Pc-based Wave, Tide and Surf Prediction System

The Distributed Integrated Ocean Prediction System (DIOPS) is a PC-based wave, tide and surf prediction system designed to provide DoD accurate and timely surf predictions for essentially any world-wide location. Regional and coastal wave predictions are made by the Simulating Waves Nearshore (SWAN) wave module that is typically initialized by offshore directional wave spectra from the Fleet Numerical Meteorological and Oceanography Center (FNMOC). Tide and storm surge predictions are made by PCTIDES, a relocatable 2-D barotropic ocean model that can assimilate tidal constituent data. A one-dimensional surf model, SURF3.2 generates surf predictions based on wave and tidal information from SWAN and PCTIDES. Wind forcing obtained from FNMOC is used to force all DIOPS models. Water levels from PCTIDES are used to adjust bathymetry in the wave and surf modules. The Dynamic Information Architecture System developed by Argonne National Laboratory provides the object-oriented framework that allows the models to exchange information with each other. DIOPS has been loosely coupled with the Delft3D modeling system for 2-dimenionsal surf predictions to give the U.S. Navy a new capability to predict the location of rip-tides, provided high-resolution (scales of meters) bathymetry is available.