Oceanweather (OWI) is pleased to announce the launch of the Newfoundland Offshore Meteorological and Oceanographic Study Joint Industry Project (NEWMOS JIP). Phase 1 will launch in January 2022 and address the top tropical and extra-tropical storms from the period 1979-2021 by applying detailed kinematic analysis of storm winds and application of a ~4 km spectral ocean model. Phase 2 of the study (expected start June 2022) will model the full continuous period to develop a 43-year database of winds and waves for operability and design.

NEWMOS builds on a long line of studies performed by OWI since the 1980s originally under the Program of Energy Research and Development while working for Environment Canada. Early studies addressed the storm population at the Hibernia platform offshore St. Johns. Later work in the 1990s demonstrated the need for detailed reanalysis of tropical and extra-tropical cyclones offshore. With the development of the NCEP/NCAR reanalysis project in 1994, the first long-term wave hindcast for the North Atlantic based on both reanalysis model forcing and reanalysis of tropical and extra-tropical events, AES40, was developed in 1998. In 2006, AES40 was replaced by the MSC50 hindcast which included a 6-minute hourly archive for areas offshore the Canadian East Coast. The NEWMOS will apply finer resolution ocean models than previous efforts and the latest wind analysis models and analysis methods in the generation of a new comprehensive metocean dataset.

For further information regarding the NEWMOS JIP or any of our other JIP projects as well as our spec products, please contact Erin Harris via email at erinh@oceanweather.com or by phone at +1 203-661-3091.

Proposed multi-resolution nested wave model grids for NEWMOS.