Co-Conveners:
Chris Mooers/Portland State University (PSU), Ted Strub/Oregon State University (OSU), Yi Chao/Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) & University of California-Los Angeles (UCLA), and Rich Patchen /Coast Survey Development Laboratory (CSDL), National Ocean Service (NOS)

Background:
There is a vibrant, growing community of West Coast ocean circulation modelers. They have common needs for a reliable, skill-assessed operational super-regional model to provide open boundary conditions for regional shelf and estuarine models. In the recent past, NRL has provided a quasi-operational model for the West Coast but it is not fully robust in an operational sense. The NAVO/Navy is running West Coast regional operational models as well as global operational models which some researchers utilize. NOS/NOAA intends to operate an operational West Coast super-regional model to support its shelf and estuarine operational models, and it has a strong interest in community-based skill assessments of its models, which will be facilitated, in part, by OOI data sets. There is also a need to further refine the consensus attributes for such a super-regional West Coast operational model, which would be best accomplished thru a workshop.

West Coast Modeling Workshop Goal & Objectives:
GOAL: Overview the present modeling efforts for the California Current System (CCS) and Alaska Current System (ACS), and formulate the scientific needs and requirements for a Super-Regional (S-R) Model Testbed.

OBJECTIVES:

• Identify continental margin and estuarine circulation and ecosystem modeling projects (including research, quasi-operational, and operational systems) needing reliable open lateral boundary conditions from a larger domain model
• Develop skill assessment metrics for CCS/ACS regional and super-regional models
• Assess the present observational capabilities and articulate the requirements for a targeted observing system to address the above metrics
• Outline the attributes needed in an operational model and supporting testbed for the CCS/ACS S-R that can provide the needed open boundary conditions
• Enumerate needed CCS/ACS S-R testbed activities (e.g., skill assessment (models vs observations & model vs model; between data assimilation schemes; for model ensembles; etc.), OSEs, OSSEs, OPEs, re-analyses, etc.) for which enhanced infrastructural support, including cyber-infrastructure, is required

WS Program Design:

• Review state of super-regional modeling of the California Current System (CCS) & Alaska Current System (ACS)
• Review state of IOOS West Coast regional coastal ocean and estuarine/riverine models, from Baja California to the Gulf of Alaska
• Review state of downscaling to the coastal ocean and estuaries from super-regional models for the CCS-ACS to the coastal ocean and estuaries
• Discuss design options for a West Coast super-regional model testbed, including observing system opportunities and needs; e.g., OOI arrays
• Communicate about SCCOOS, CENCOOS, NANOOS, and AOOS modeling and observing system plans for IOOS

Logistical Attributes:
The WS will be run for 2 1/2 days, on 20 to 22 SEP 2010. About 40 to 50 participants are anticipated. The WS will be held adjacent to the Portland State University campus at the University Place Hotel, with convenient access from PDX airport via public transport.

Plan for Documentation of the ePOPf WC Modeling WS:
In this day-and-age when we are flooded w/WS & other reports, and considering the nature of this WS, it is important to produce a brief, timely, readable, pithy, provocative, actionable report, free of platitudes and perhaps 20 pages in length, including several representative figures. The report will be backed up w/a Website containing the WS presentations. The report will be focused on the distillate of the WS: the two sets of Breakout Group Reports, which, in turn, will be focused on presenting a finite set of consensual Findings & Recommendations (F&Rs). Accordingly, the main expectation for the Breakout Group Co-Chairs is to rough out a very finite set of F&Rs during the WS. The F&Rs will be subsequently merged (as appropriate), refined, and polished by the Co-Conveners and vetted by the WS participants to ensure an adequate consensus. Completion of the WS report will be achieved by late NOV 10.