Development and implementation of an Operational Forecasting System for the Dubai coastal zone

The Dubai Operational Forecasting System couples a suite of meteorology and ocean models with data management infrastructure and web-based information tools. This infrastructure efficiently generates and disseminates three-day forecasts of winds, wave, and currents. The forecast system implements the latest open-source modelling technology from the research and academic communities to build an operational system that is a suite of interconnected components that allows for seamless interaction of meteorological and oceanographic models, real-time data, and client-defined custom web-based reports and tools that access model forecasts and real-time observations. The system integrates a number of components including operational numerical modelling, Arabian Gulf meteorology, offshore and coastal hydrodynamic models, offshore and nearshore wave models, coastal inundation, connection to the Dubai Ocean Observing system for real-time data integration, web-based data management and data distribution, and a fully interactive, web-based client for data display and analysis. The web based client includes tools for disseminating coastal safety warning organized by coastal region, an operational oil spill forecasting system, and a time slider for animating the temporally varying forecast data.