Prediction of Instantaneous Currents in San Diego Bay for Naval Applications

Naval operations are highly dependent upon environmental conditions that can either adversely affect successful completion or hinder the safety of personnel. Each warfare community has defined environmental thresholds and operating limits that restrict the execution of any intended maneuver. As the warfare environment continues to shift from open ocean to the littoral, environmental prediction and modeling efforts of shallow water surroundings need to be developed to support these operations. A hydrodynamic model, Water Quality Management and Analysis Package (WQMAP), has been developed by Applied Sciences Associates, Inc. to provide accurate littoral environmental prediction. WQMAP consists of a boundary-fitted coordinate grid creation module, a 3D hydrodynamics model, and a water quality or pollutant transport model. WQMAP is one of several hydrodynamic models used by the Naval Oceanographic Office (NAVOCEANO) to predict currents and water elevations in littoral regions. WQMAP differs from other Navy operational current prediction models, such as Wave Watch 3 and the Navy Layered Ocean Model. Both of these models forecast for large scale or global regions and do not provide output for inner littoral bays and estuaries. A finer resolution model designed within specific bays is required to support mine warfare and diver operations within these locations. Implementations of shallow water hydrodynamic models in foreign waters are usually data-starved for model forcing and validation. In a series of studies, NAVOCEANO intends to model various bays within the continental United States, where sufficient data exist, to study the sensitivity of lack of data on model results. This study will utilize WQMAP to design a hydrodynamic model of San Diego Bay to predict currents. This will allow researchers to investigate the impact of grid resolution on model results, and to provide proper current predictions for Fleet training and operations. (4 tables, 24 figures, 6 refs.) 7Naval Postgraduate School Monterey CA is the author of 'Prediction of Instantaneous Currents in San Diego Bay for Naval Applications', published 2004 under ISBN 9781423586067 and ISBN 1423586069.