With a focus on the western Pacific, this portal provides ocean data relevant to a range of sectors and applications including tourism, fishing, shipping/boating, coastal inundation, environmental management etc. Designed with a user-friendly interface, the portal entry page features the applications, thereby negating the need for users to have universal knowledge of the types of information that may be relevant to their activity. The primary purpose of the portal is both data discovery, and a means of communicating ocean information.
OSCAR (Ocean Surface Current Analysis Real-time) contains near-surface ocean current estimates, derived using quasi-linear and steady flow momentum equations. The horizontal velocity is directly estimated from sea surface height, surface vector wind and sea surface temperature. These data were collected from the various satellites and in situ instruments. The model formulation combines geostrophic, Ekman and Stommel shear dynamics, and a complementary term from the surface buoyancy gradient. Data are on a 1/3 degree grid with a 5 day resolution.