Gulf of Mexico forecasts are provided for currents, temperatures and salinity.    Also, provided are the Navy forecast winds and atmospheric pressures used in making the Gulf forecasts.  The Navy forecast fields are made available from the Naval Oceanographic Office.  The forecasts are produced using the Navy's Coupled Ocean-Atmosphere Mesoscale Prediction System (COAMPS).  COAMPS is a state-of-the-art meteorological model developed at the Naval Research Laboratory Monterey, CA and is run operationally at Fleet Numerical Meteorology and Oceanography Center.   For the Gulf of Mexico, 48-hour COAMPS forecasts are provided twice daily.   

    In addition to these Navy forecast, sea surface heights (SSH) and surface temperatures (SST), which are produced by the Navy's Ocean Data Assimilation System (MODAS), are also available for viewing.  The SSH are produced using optimal interpolation of sea surface heights derived from satellite altimetry and the SST are derived from satellite AVHRR measurements.  In the selection menu:

• SSH are called NRL Elevation; and 
• SST are called NRL Sea Surface Temperature. 

    The Gulf of Mexico forecast is presented either for:

•  the entire Gulf of Mexico;
• for various coastal regions along the U.S. coastline; and
• along vertical transects.   

Viewing the forecast for the entire Gulf or coastal regions requires you to register.  If you have already registered, then enter your username and password.  Otherwise, please click here to register.