Coupled Ocean Modeling Testbed (COMT) Platform for Physics and Contaminant Exchange through the River - Estuary - Ocean Continuum

The project proposes a synergistic initiative with the overarching goal of establishing a coupled modeling testbed along the Texas Coast that will help NOAA as well as the state of Texas meet the manifold challenges confronting the State’s coastal communities. The initiative builds on existing partnerships among UTA, NOAA, the Texas Water Development Board (TWDB), the Army Corps of Engineers - Galveston District, and USGS. At the center of the testbed is an integrated modeling system that couples the National Water Model running at NOAA with the NOAA North Gulf Operational Forecast System, and the TWDB’s soon to be operational Coastal Science modeling system.

The Gulf of Mexico Coastal Ocean Observing System (GCOOS) data management practices
comply with the NOAA IOOS requirements, and requirements as a certified Regional
Coordinating Entity for the Gulf of Mexico. In close collaboration with the participating
members of the project, Mr. Gayanilo, the co-Data Manager of GCOOS, will take the lead in the
technical component of transitioning project data and products, that include among others, model
outputs and dependencies, to GCOOS facilities. When applicable, data collected by the project
will be validated and QC’d following the Quality Assurance/Quality Control of Real-Time
Oceanographic Data when applicable.

Mr. Gayanilo will ensure that data distributed in a self-describing NetCDF data files format will
comply with CF v76, NASA Global Change Master Directory ver. 9.1.5, Attribute
Convention for Data Discovery 1-3, and other NOAA IOOS requirements. When
data is to be distributed in other formats, the data will be supplemented with an ISO
19115-2 XML metadata file.

Mr. Gayanilo will also ensure that data and results from this project will be distributed in
established GCOOS data endpoints. GCOOS maintains three ERDDAP servers to serve a
historical collection of oceanographic and meteorological data, near real-time metocean
observations, and biological and socioeconomic data. GCOOS also provides an open-access
facility to its collections via a Web Accessible Folder that the data will also be posted for
public access. All data distributed by GCOOS can be downloaded, used, or enhanced without the
need to seek authorization from the author under Creative Common 0 license. Mr. Gayanilo will
provide the proper citation of data in its repository. Moreover, Mr. Gayanilo will coordinate with
NOAA NCEI for long-term archival of the data and results of the model runs.
Finally, Mr. Gayanilo will pro-actively participate in project meetings and activities requiring his
inputs in data management.