The NOPP operational wave model improvement project

The National Oceanographic Partnership Program (NOPP) has recently initiated a five-year project entitled “Improving Wind Wave Predictions: Global to Regional Scales”. This project focuses on improving operational wind wave modeling, by transitioning new science into such models, and by developing new physics parameterizations for such models. The paper describes the general goals of the project, and the science and operations gaps it attempts to bridge. Further attention is given to data sets and validation techniques for operational models. Finally, an outlook with desired and already achieved outcomes of this project is presented.