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High Resolution Tidal Hindcast (US Tidal) Dataset
This Water Power Technologies Office (WPTO) High Resolution Tidal Hindcast dataset (us-tidal) provides standardized tidal energy data for five strategically selected U.S. coastal locations with significant tidal energy potential. Developed collaboratively by Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL) and National Laboratory of the Rockies (NLR), this dataset is funded by the U.S. Department of Energy's WPTO Marine Energy Resource Assessment and Characterization project.
Generated using FVCOM 4.3.1 (Finite Volume Community Ocean Model) [1], each locations' dataset contains one year of high-resolution tidal energy data including eastward and northward sea water velocities, surface elevation, calculated speed, flow direction, and power density across 10 uniform sigma layers. The data follows CF-1.10, ACDD-1.3, and ME Data Pipeline-1.0 conventions and meets IEC 62600-201 [2] Stage 1 tidal resource analysis standards in most areas.
The five locations include Aleutian Islands and Cook Inlet (Alaska), Piscataqua River (New Hampshire), Puget Sound (Washington), and Western Passage (Maine), with temporal resolutions ranging from half-hourly to hourly and spanning complete annual cycles for each dataset. This standardized dataset is intended to support theoretical and technical resource potential assessments, commercial development planning, policy analysis, environmental planning, and research applications for the marine energy community.
Locations:
* Aleutian Islands, Alaska (1 Year, 2010-2011, hourly, 797,978 grid faces)
* Cook Inlet, Alaska (1 Year, 2005, hourly, 392,002 grid faces)
* Piscataqua River, New Hampshire (1 Year, 2007, half-hourly, 292,927 grid faces)
* Puget Sound, Washington (364 Days, 2015, half-hourly, 1,734,765 grid faces)
* Western Passage, Maine (1 Year, 2017, half-hourly, 231,208 grid faces)
Variables
* Latitude and longitude [degrees] for element face center and vertices
* Eastward and Northward sea water velocity (u, v) [meters per second]
* Depth and Surface Elevation calculated to relative to NAVD88 [meters]
* Calculated sea water speed [meters per second]
* Calculated sea water to direction [degrees clockwise from true north]
* Calculated sea water power density [watts per square meter]
* Calculated surface elevation relative to Mean Sea Level (MSL) [meters]
* Calculated total depth and layer depths relative to MSL [meters]
Model Configuration
* FVCOM 4.3.1 [1] with unstructured triangular mesh
* 10 uniform sigma (depth) layers from surface to seafloor
* Sub-500m grid resolution in areas with tidal energy potential.
* 12 tidal constituents from OSU TPXO boundary forcing
Complete Metadata
| @type | dcat:Dataset |
|---|---|
| accessLevel | public |
| bureauCode |
[
"019:20"
]
|
| contactPoint |
{
"fn": "Mike Lawson",
"@type": "vcard:Contact",
"hasEmail": "mailto:michael.lawson@nrel.gov"
}
|
| dataQuality |
true
|
| description | This Water Power Technologies Office (WPTO) High Resolution Tidal Hindcast dataset (us-tidal) provides standardized tidal energy data for five strategically selected U.S. coastal locations with significant tidal energy potential. Developed collaboratively by Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL) and National Laboratory of the Rockies (NLR), this dataset is funded by the U.S. Department of Energy's WPTO Marine Energy Resource Assessment and Characterization project. Generated using FVCOM 4.3.1 (Finite Volume Community Ocean Model) [1], each locations' dataset contains one year of high-resolution tidal energy data including eastward and northward sea water velocities, surface elevation, calculated speed, flow direction, and power density across 10 uniform sigma layers. The data follows CF-1.10, ACDD-1.3, and ME Data Pipeline-1.0 conventions and meets IEC 62600-201 [2] Stage 1 tidal resource analysis standards in most areas. The five locations include Aleutian Islands and Cook Inlet (Alaska), Piscataqua River (New Hampshire), Puget Sound (Washington), and Western Passage (Maine), with temporal resolutions ranging from half-hourly to hourly and spanning complete annual cycles for each dataset. This standardized dataset is intended to support theoretical and technical resource potential assessments, commercial development planning, policy analysis, environmental planning, and research applications for the marine energy community. Locations: * Aleutian Islands, Alaska (1 Year, 2010-2011, hourly, 797,978 grid faces) * Cook Inlet, Alaska (1 Year, 2005, hourly, 392,002 grid faces) * Piscataqua River, New Hampshire (1 Year, 2007, half-hourly, 292,927 grid faces) * Puget Sound, Washington (364 Days, 2015, half-hourly, 1,734,765 grid faces) * Western Passage, Maine (1 Year, 2017, half-hourly, 231,208 grid faces) Variables * Latitude and longitude [degrees] for element face center and vertices * Eastward and Northward sea water velocity (u, v) [meters per second] * Depth and Surface Elevation calculated to relative to NAVD88 [meters] * Calculated sea water speed [meters per second] * Calculated sea water to direction [degrees clockwise from true north] * Calculated sea water power density [watts per square meter] * Calculated surface elevation relative to Mean Sea Level (MSL) [meters] * Calculated total depth and layer depths relative to MSL [meters] Model Configuration * FVCOM 4.3.1 [1] with unstructured triangular mesh * 10 uniform sigma (depth) layers from surface to seafloor * Sub-500m grid resolution in areas with tidal energy potential. * 12 tidal constituents from OSU TPXO boundary forcing |
| distribution |
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"title": "Reference 1",
"format": "92",
"accessURL": "https://doi.org/10.5670/oceanog.2006.92",
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"description": "[1] C. Chen, R. C. Beardsley, and G. Cowles, "An unstructured grid, finite-volume coastal ocean model (FVCOM) system," Oceanography, vol. 19, no. 1, pp. 78-89, 2006, doi: 10.5670/oceanog.2006.92."
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|
| identifier | https://data.openei.org/submissions/8579 |
| issued | 2025-06-09T06:00:00Z |
| keyword |
[
"Current",
"Current Energy",
"FVCOM",
"High Resolution",
"Hydrokinetic",
"IEC 62600-201",
"MHK",
"Marine",
"NLR",
"PNNL",
"Resource Assessment",
"Resource Characterization",
"Tidal",
"United States",
"coast",
"data",
"dataset",
"energy",
"energy potential",
"flow direction",
"hindcast",
"power density",
"speed",
"surface elevation",
"velocity"
]
|
| landingPage | https://mhkdr.openei.org/submissions/632 |
| license | https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ |
| modified | 2025-12-08T20:30:13Z |
| programCode |
[
"019:009"
]
|
| projectLead | Heather Spence |
| projectNumber | FY25 AOP 2.1.5.401 |
| projectTitle | Resource Characterization |
| publisher |
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|
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| title | High Resolution Tidal Hindcast (US Tidal) Dataset |
