On June 30, 2004, ship traffic in Galveston Bay, Texas, gained a new tool to assist in safe navigation. The Galveston Bay Operational Forecast System (GBOFS), became operational at the Center for Operational Oceanographic Products and Services (CO-OPs) and provides hourly nowcasts and 30 hour forecasts four times daily (00, 06,12, and 18Z) of water levels, currents, temperature and salinity. Prior to operational status, an experimental nowcast/forecast system was developed in CSDL as an educational tool as well as a back-up to the operational system.

PORTS observation locations in Galveston Bay

The two nowcast/forecast systems serve as a complement to the PORTS system, which was established in June 1996. Water surface elevation, currents, temperature, salinity, and meteorological information are available at six-minute intervals. To simulate currents within the Houston Ship Channel (HSC), a finer resolution three-dimensional HSC model was developed. The Galveston Bay model is used to provide bay-wide water level and near entrance current forecasts as well as to directly provide water levels, density, and turbulence quantities to the HSC model for use in a one-way coupling. Operational and experimental nowcasts and forecasts are made with both the Bay and HSC models driven by: 1) observed (PORTS) and forecasted (National Weather Service (NWS) Extra-Tropical Storm Surge model) subtidal water level at Galveston Pleasure Pier, 2) observed streamflow United States Geological Survey (USGS) and forecasted streamflow (NWS Western Gulf River Forecast Center), and 3) analyzed (PORTS meteorological stations) and forecast (NWS North American Mesoscale model) wind and pressure fields.