Down-scaled regional ocean modeling system (ROMS) for high-resolution coastal hydrodynamics in Korea

A down-scaled operational oceanographic system is developed for the coastal waters of Korea using a regional ocean modeling system (ROMS). The operational oceanographic modeling system consists of atmospheric and hydrodynamic models. The hydrodynamic model, ROMS, is coupled with wave, sediment transport, and water qualitymodules. The system forecasts the predicted results twice a day on a 72 h basis, including sea surface elevation, currents, temperature, salinity, storm surge height, and wave information for the coastal waters of Korea. The predicted results are exported to the web-GIS-based coastal information system for real-time dissemination to the public and validation with real-time monitoring data using visualization technologies. The ROMS is two-way coupledwith a simulatingwaves nearshoremodel, SWAN, for the hydrodynamics and waves, nested with themeteorologicalmodel,WRF, for the atmospheric surface forcing, and externally nested with the eutrophicationmodel, CE-QUAL-ICM, for the water quality. The operational model, ROMS, was calibrated with the tidal surface observed with a tide-gage and verified with current data observed by bottom-mounted ADCP or AWAC near the coastal waters of Korea. To validate the predicted results, we used real-time monitoring data derived from remote buoy system, HF-radar, and geostationary ocean color imager (GOCI). This down-scaled operational coastal forecasting system will be used as a part of the Korea operational oceanographic system(KOOS) with other operational oceanographic systems.