A Columbia River Estuary Operational Forecast System (CREOFS) has been developed to serve the Oregon and Washington maritime communities. CREOFS was jointly developed by the Oregon Health & Science University (OHSU), the NOAA/National Ocean Service's (NOS) Office of Coast Survey and Center for Operational Oceanographic Products and Services (CO-OPS), and the NOAA/National Weather Service's (NWS) National Centers for Environmental Prediction (NCEP) Central Operations (NCO). The NWS and NOS work together to run CREOFS operationally on NOAA's High Performance Computing System (HPCS). By running on NOAA's HPCS, CREOFS has direct access to National Weather Service operational meteorological products that are required for reliable operations. As its core ocean prediction model, CREOFS uses the Semi-implicit Eulerian-Lagrangian Finite Element (SELFE) model, which was also developed at OHSU.
CREOFS provides users with nowcast (analyses of near present) and forecast guidance of water levels, currents, water temperature, and salinity out to 48 hours, four times per day. The CREOFS model domain is also divided into five separate subdomains (Upper Columbia River , Middle Columbia River, Lower Columbia River, Columbia River Bar Entrance, and the mouth and offshore of the Columbia River), allowing users to focus on their area of interest. Animation maps of each of the five subdomains as well as time series at particular stations or points of interest are available at over 40 locations for winds, water level, currents, temperature, and salinity.
CREOFS is based on a three-dimensional, high resolution model. With the added reliability of running at NOAA's HPCS, CREOFS will assist U.S. port authorities and mariners to efficiently navigate the Columbia River without compromising safety.
For more detailed information about CREOFS, please click here.
For more information about SELFE, please click here.
The CREOFS model provides forecast guidance for water levels, currents, water temperature, and salinity within its domain. For the official NOAA water level forecast from the National Weather Service's Northwest River Forecast Center, please click here.
Disclaimer:
The Columbia River Estuary Operational Forecast System (CREOFS) has been implemented by NOAA's
National Ocean Service (NOS) to provide the maritime user community with short-term predictions of
water levels, water currents, water temperatures and salinity of the Columbia River and Estuary.
CREOFS uses a numerical hydrodynamic model to generate the nowcast and forecast information; therefore,
they should be considered as model-generated nowcast and forecast guidance. For more detailed
information related to the OFS disclaimer, please visit at the
Disclaimers web page.
During extreme weather conditions, water level forecast guidance data are released for public utility and should be used with appropriate caution.