Authors: Raffaele Montuoro, Jaison Kurian, Ping Chang, R. Saravanan

The implementation of a real-time, high-resolution forecast system for both the ocean and atmosphere over the Gulf of Mexico, as well as its ability to effectively assist emergency responses to Hurricanes and oil spills will be discussed in detail. The system is based on a locally developed Coupled Regional Climate Model (CRCM), which takes into account energy exchanges between the ocean--described by Rutgers/UCLA’s Regional Ocean Modeling System (ROMS)--and the atmosphere--described by NCAR’s Weather Research and Forecast System (WRF)--to improve the predictions’ accuracy. The model runs on Texas A&M University’s flagship high-performance computing system at 3km resolution, and forecast charts are made available in real-time through the Web at http://sc.tamu.edu/crcm. This high-resolution forecast system has been used during the Summer of 2012 to generate accurate, real-time predictions of Hurricane Isaac’s path, and to support the fieldwork of scientists with the Gulf Integrated Spill Research (GISR) Consortium during their first Deep-Release experiment, aimed at studying diffusion pathways of hydrocarbons produced by oil spills in the Gulf of Mexico.