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 re- gional ocean modeling system （ROMS）. The operational oceanographic modeling system consists of at- mospheric and hydrodynamic models. The hydrodynamic model, ROMS, is coupled with wave, sediment transport, and water quality modules. 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 informa- tion system for real-time dissemination to the public and validation with real-time monitoring data using visualization technologies. The ROMS is two-way coupled with a simulating waves nearshore model, SWAN, for the hydrodynamics and waves, nested with the meteorological model, WRE for the atmospheric surface forcing, and externally nested with the eutrophication model, CE-QUAL-ICM, for the water quality. The op- erational 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.