SAMOA (Sistema de Apoyo Meteorológico y Oceanográfico de la Autoridad Portuaria) is the latest initiative of Puertos del Estado, the Spanish Public State Port Agency, to enhance the delivery of user-customised operational met-ocean information to aid Spanish Port Authorities making harbour safety, environmental management and operational decisions. This initiative provides high-resolution coastal operational prediction systems in domains such as harbours and nearby coastal waters. Forecast systems implemented are fully operational from January 2017 for nine Spanish ports in the Mediterranean, the Iberian Atlantic and the Canary Islands. This paper provides an end-to-end description of these SAMOA systems that are based on high-resolution ROMS model applications. The SAMOA systems are CMEMS downstream services, being the coastal models nested into the regional IBI forecast solution. At the surface, SAMOA systems use as forcing daily updated hourly winds and heat and water fluxes from the Spanish Meteorological Agency forecast services. Highlights from the scientific pre-operational model evaluation phase and the multi-parametric validation are shown, illustrating agreements between SAMOA products and in-situ and remoted sensed observations. To this aim, skill metrics (such as bias, errors, Taylor diagrams and correlations) are presented. Finally, a look ahead to future SAMOA developments and operational innovations is provided.

The Puertos del Estado SAMOA coastal and port ocean forecast service delivers operational ocean forecasts to the Spanish Port Authorities since 01/2017 (originally set-up for 9 ports). In its second development phase (2019–2021), the SAMOA service has been extended to 31 ports (practically, the whole Spanish Port System). Besides, the next generation of the SAMOA service is being developed. Research is being focused on (1) updating atmospheric forcing (by combining the AEMET HARMONIE 2.5 Km forecasts and the IFS-ECMWF ones), (2) upgrading the circulation model (ROMS), and (3) testing new methodologies to nest SAMOA systems in the Copernicus IBI-MFC regional solution (with emphasis on its 3D hourly dataset). Evaluation of specific model upgrades is here presented. Model sensitivity tests have been assessed using the available in-situ and remoted sensed (i.e., RadarHF) observations. The results show that SAMOA outperforms IBI-MFC in sea level forecasting at meso- and macro-tidal environments. Improvements by the herein proposed upgrades are incremental: some of these set-ups were used in the last SAMOA operational releases (i.e., the SAM_INI and the SAM_ADV ones; the later currently in operations), whereas the latest test (SAM_H3D) ensures more nesting consistency with the IBI-MFC and improves significantly surface currents and sea-surface temperature simulations.

Wind spatial heterogeneity in a coastal area (Alfacs Bay, northwestern Mediterranean Sea) is described using a set of observations and modelling results. Observations in three meteorological stations (during 2012–2013) along the coastline reveal that wind from the N–NW (strongest winds in the region) appears to be affected by the local orography promoting high wind variability on relatively short spatial scales (of the order of few kilometres). On the other hand, sea breezes in late spring and summer also show noticeable differences in both spatial distribution and duration. The importance of wind models' spatial resolution is also assessed, revealing that high resolution (= 3 km) substantially improves the results in comparison to coarse resolution (9 km). The highest-resolution model tested (400 m) also presents noticeable improvements during some events, showing spatial variability not revealed by coarser models. All these models are used to describe and understand the spatial variability of the typical wind events in the region. The results presented in this contribution should be considered on hydrodynamic, ecological and risk management investigations in coastal areas with complex orography.

Cross and along‐shelf winds drive cross‐shelf transport that promotes the exchange of tracers and nutrients to the open sea. The shelf response to cross‐shelf winds is studied in the north shelf of the Ebro Delta (Mediterranean Sea), where those winds are prevalent and intense. Offshore winds in the region exhibit strong intensities (wind stress larger than 0.8 Pa) during winter and fall. The monthly average flow observed in a 1 year current meter record at 43.5 m was polarized following the isobaths with the along‐shelf variability being larger than the cross‐shelf. Prevalent southwestward along‐shelf flow was induced by the three‐dimensional regional response to cross‐shelf winds and the coastal constraint. Seaward near‐surface velocities occurred predominantly during offshore wind events. During intense wind periods, the surface cross‐shelf water transport exceeded the net along‐shelf transport. During typically stratified seasons, the intense cross‐shelf winds resulted in a well‐defined two‐layer flow and were more effective at driving offshore transport than during unstratified conditions. While transfer coefficients between wind and currents were generally around 1%, higher cross‐shelf transfer coefficients were observed in the near‐inertial band. The regional extent of the resulting surface cold water during energetic cross‐shelf winds events was concentrated around the region of the wind jet. Cross‐shelf transport due to along‐shelf winds was only effective during northeast wind events. During along‐shelf wind conditions, the transport was estimated to be between 10 and 50% of the theoretical Ekman transport.

Oil spill accidents during port operations are one of the main hydrocarbon pollution threats for coastal waters. Appropriate environmental risk assessment and pollution events management tools are needed to achieve sustainability and environmental protection in port activity. Recent developments in monitoring techniques and accurate meteo-oceanographic prediction systems have been implemented in many ports, providing tools for environmental management. A novel method based on meteo-oceanographic operational services, in conjunction with Monte Carlo experiments using an oil spill model, is implemented to perform probabilistic maps of potential pollution events. Tarragona port area was chosen as the study case for three reasons: it accommodates a hub of petrochemical industry, the availability of high-resolution wind and water current data, and previous studies at the area offer the possibility to check the results’ accuracy. The interpretation of the impact probability maps reveals a specific pattern explained by the mean hydrodynamic conditions and the energetic north-westerly wind conditions. The impact probability maps may enhance efficiency in the environmental management of port waters and nearby coastal areas, reducing the negative impact of pollutant discharges.

This article investigates water circulation in small-scale (~10 km²), shallow (less than 4 m) and micro-tidal estuaries. The research characterizes the hydrodynamic wind response in these domains using field data from Fangar Bay (Ebro Delta) jointly with three-dimensional numerical experiments in an idealized domain. During calm periods, field data in Fangar Bay show complex water circulation in the inner part of the estuary owing to its shallow depths and positive estuarine circulation in the mouth. Numerical experiments are conducted to investigate wind-induced water circulation due to laterally varying bathymetry. For intense up-bay wind conditions (wind intensities greater than 9 m·s⁻¹), an axially symmetric transverse structure occurs with outflow in the central channel axis and inflow in the lateral shallow areas. These numerical results explain the water circulation observed in Fangar Bay during strong wind episodes, highlighting the role of the bathymetry in a small-scale environment. During these episodes, the water column tends to homogenize rapidly in Fangar Bay, breaking the stratification and disrupting estuarine circulation, consistent with other observations in similar domains.