NWS wave modeling Suites : Recent upgrades and Future Plans

The National Center for Environmental Prediction (NCEP) maintains 3 global operational wave modeling suites (A GFS driven system, a Hurricane wave system and an Ensemble system) and 1 regional modeling suite (for the Great Lakes) that are used to provide guidance for operational wave forecasts at the National Weather Service (NWS). These wave modelling suites have gone through significant upgrades in the last two years that include new physics packages for wave growth and dissipation, as well as new swell dissipation physics, which have significantly improved skill scores across the model suites. Also the Hurricane wave system has been updated to work with the HWRF model which has also led to further improvements in the skill scores. The Great Lakes models have also benefited from the use of new curvilinear grids as well as enhancements to the wind forcings. All of these advancements shall be reported in this conference. Future plans include coupling wave models with atmosphere and ocean models to properly account for wave processes in the transfer of momentum and heat fluxes between the atmosphere and the ocean.