OFS Tampa Bay Currents
| Provider: | Center for Operational Oceanographic Products (NOAA) |
| Model scope: | North America Florida |
| Update frequency: | every 6 hours |
| Resolution: | 0.2nm, 0.3km |
| Model duration: | 48 forecasts starting at 1 hr, ending at 2 days |
| Parameters: | current, tide |
| GRIB model date: | Fri May 30 18:00:00 2025 UTC |
| Download date: | Fri May 30 19:43:59 2025 UTC |
| Download delay: | 1hr 43min |
Note: the Download delay is the amount of time required for the GRIB model to compute its forecast and then for the LuckGrib cluster to download the data and make it available. The LuckGrib delay is generally less than 10 minutes, the remainder of the delay is the model compute time.
Description
The following text has been taken from the OFS site which describes this model:
For decades, mariners in the United States have depended on NOAA’s Tide Tables for the best estimate of expected water levels. These tables provide accurate predictions of the astronomical tide (i.e., the change in water level due to the gravitational effects of the moon and sun and the rotation of the Earth); however, they cannot predict water-level changes due to wind, atmospheric pressure, and river flow, which are often significant.
A Tampa Bay Operational Forecast System (TBOFS) has been developed to serve the maritime user community. TBOFS was developed in a joint project of the NOAA/National Ocean Service (NOS)/Office of Coast Survey, the NOAA/NOS/Center for Operational Oceanographic Products and Services (CO-OPS), and the NOAA/National Weather Service (NWS)/National Centers for Environmental Prediction (NCEP) Central Operations (NCO) using Rutgers University’s Regional Ocean Modeling System (ROMS). TBOFS generates water level, current, temperature and salinity nowcast and forecast guidance four times per day. Aerial animations of the whole Tampa Bay as well as time series at particular stations or points of interest are available for 20 locations for the five parameters (water level, currents, temperature, and/or salinity).
TBOFS runs on NOAA’s High Performance Computers (HPC) in a new Coastal Ocean Modeling Framework (COMF) developed by CO-OPS. As a result, TBOFS has direct access to NWS operational meteorological products that it needs to run reliably.
TBOFS is based on a three-dimensional, high resolution model and with the added reliability of running at NOAA’s HPC, TBOFS will assist U.S. port authorities and mariners in efficiently navigating the Tampa Bay without compromising safety.
Grid
https://tidesandcurrents.noaa.gov/images/tbofs_grid.pngThe Tampa Bay OFS model is calculated using a bathymetry following irregular grid which has over 50,000 grid nodes. The results of this computation are then sampled, by OFS, into a regular latitude / longitude aligned grid. The data on this regular grid are then converted to GRIB format by LuckGrib.
Additional information
For additional information, see: