OceanPredict: Coastal Ocean and Shelf Seas Task Team Meeting

The Coastal Ocean and Shelf Seas Task Team (COSS-TT) of OceanPredict held its international coordination meeting from 17 to 20 June 2025 in Brest, France. The main mission of the COSS-TT is international coordination in support of new science and expertise leading to improvements in coastal ocean prediction and forecast systems. The COSS-TT is strongly aligned with Ocean Decade initiatives such as the CoastPredict program, the SynObs project, the OceanPrediction DCC and the Coastal Resilience DCC and other tasks teams including the Expert Team on Operational Ocean Forecasting Systems (ETOOFS), supporting complementarity, inclusion and efforts to turn science into operational services. 

Gathering a broad community of scientists, engineers and experts, the meeting aimed to enhance scientific understanding and forecasting capabilities along the land–sea continuum, tackling the complex series of interfaces linking river basins, estuaries, deltas, coastal seas, and the open ocean. Among the key outcomes is advances in the integration of in-situ and satellite observations, particularly with expected results from data assimilation of the SWOT - Surface Water Ocean Topography mission to resolve small-scale coastal features. The meeting highlighted the importance of cost-effective, smart observing networks to improve forecasting capabilities, facilitated by Observing System Experiments (OSEs) and Observing System Simulation Experiments (OSSEs). Advances in high-resolution modeling of coastal dynamics, emphasized the role of unstructured grids and coupled systems for multi-hazard prediction and downscaling were also emphasized. Participants highlighted the importance of hybrid physics-informed AI methods as complementary tools, however underlining the need for transparency, uncertainty qualification and standardization of AI applications. Last, a common priority was the co-design of digital twins and decision-support systems that combine physical, biogeochemical, socio-economic components and AI to develop user-oriented services for disaster risk reduction and sustainable coastal development. 

For more information, visit https://oceanpredict.org/archived-events/op-task-team-meetings/coss-tt-meetings/coss-tt-meeting-june-2025/#section-overview-and-meeting-objectives