Validation Test Report for WAVEWATCH III

This document serves as the Validation Test Report for the WAVEWATCH III model transition to the Naval Oceanographic Office NAVOCEANO. A literature review is given, focusing on prior validation efforts, such as those by FNMOC and NCEP comparing WAM and WAVEWATCH III. An experimental realtime system is now running on NAVOCEANO hardware and uses the multi-grid two-way nesting feature of WW3, with a global grid and nine regional grids. The realtime system is validated in a limited sense using several coastal and deepwater NOAA NDBC buoys. The third component provides a thorough validation. This is done using a single-grid global wave model hindcast for the last four months of 2010. The primary ground truth for this section is satellite altimetry, though several deep-water buoys are also used here. Four hindcasts are evaluated, using two alternate forms of wave model physics. In a final section, recommendations for the future are given.