Shelf Regional Ocean Modeling System (ROMS-Shelf) 2003-2011 Hindcast for the Texas-Louisana Shelf.

The model simulation spans the period from 1 February 2003 to 1 January 2012. The initial and open boundary conditions are obtained from the Gulf of Mexico Hybrid Coordinate Ocean Model (GOM-HYCOM) (http:\\www.hycom.org) covering the entire GOM. This nesting gives a reasonable representation of Loop Current eddies in the model. Atmospheric forcing includes 3-hourly u- and v- components of wind speed, shortwave radiation, air temperature, air pressure, relative humidity, cloud and precipitation from the North American Regional Reanalysis (NARR) dataset, which is available at a spatial resolution of 32~km. Fresh water fluxes from the Mississippi and Atchafalaya rivers are taken from daily values of Mississippi River transport at Tarbert Landing by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, and river discharge from the other seven rivers (the Nueces, San Antonio, Lavaca, Brazos, Trinity, Sabine and Calcasieu Rivers) are obtained from the U.S.G.S Real-Time Water Data for the Nation. This model does not contain tides, since previous studies have shown that tides are generally weak on the Texas-Louisiana shelf and only make a small contribution to the sea surface elevation and coastal currents (DiMarco, S. F., and R. O. Reid (1998), Characterization of the principal tidal current constituents on the Texas-Louisiana shelf, J. Geophys. Res., 103(C2), 3093–3109, doi:10.1029/97JC03289).