1. Irish Sea Public domain: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Irish_Sea From Irish National Tidegauge NetworkIrish National Tidegauge Network Mean spring tides along Cumbrian coast of 8 m (mean neap of 4 m at Liverpool) http://www.pol.ac.uk/ntslf/hilo.php?port=liverpool Mean spring tidal currents: 0.25-2 m/s

2. From http://cobs.pol.ac.uk/cobs/rivers/ Locations of rivers in Liverpool area mean flows in all of these rivers are < 40 m 3 /s 90% flows < 100 m 3 /s Extreme flow events < 500 m 3 /s All show highly variable flows with a tendency toward reduced flows in Summer. Eden and Mersey watersheds ~ 2000 km 2 Ribble, Lune and Derwent ~ 1000 km 2 Detailed mapDetailed map with links to climatology and data

3. From http://cobs.pol.ac.uk/cobs/http://cobs.pol.ac.uk/cobs/ Locations of observations

4. Observation network components: Maintained by POL: 2 buoys Grid of fixed cast locations on monthly cruises Hf radar Instrument package on ferry Met station External: Coastal tide gauges Waverider wave buoys

5. Observation network components: Smart buoy located at 22 m depth nitrate measured in situ and from samples silicate measured from samples chlorophyll measured by flourescence (proxy for biomass) Salinity, temperature, suspended sediment, light penetration and oxygen saturation also measured Map viewer

6. ADCP (bed mounted) 600 kHz ADCP (probably a workhorse monitor)workhorse monitor Measuring 1 m bins, with 2.5 m frame/instrument/blanking distance 95+% continuous data for 2002-2006 at the previous location New location established in 2006 Buoy at this location appears to be for telemetry and locating, but not instrumented Subsampled data transmitted in near real-time Full data recovered intermittently Telemetry method may be OrbComm satellite Data is displayed on the web site

7. Cruises: Grid (9.3 km) of fixed locations visited monthly Flow-through data collected in transit Cast profile data collected at stations 4-6 week period of cruises CTD, SPM, nutrients and bed sediment sampling Data available on web for registered users No display of data results provided on web

8. Radar systems: HF radar: 12-16MHz WERA HF radar systemWERA Measures currents and waves installed at two locations Covers Liverpool bay 2 km resolution for currents 5 km resolution for wave spectra Marine Radar (x-band radar)x-band radar 5 km range Covers Dee estuary Planned use includes monitoring of bathymetry Images available, but appears to be still in development From POLPOL From POLPOL

9. Ferry instrumentation: Ferry runs from Liverpool to Belfast or Dublin Round trip daily (7 hours each way) 135 mile crossing Salinity, Temperature, chlorophyll and turbidity measured at 30 s interval Data transmitted near real-time via OrbComm satellite Data and visual display of data available on web

10. Other observations Meteorological data collected near Liverpool (by POL) Tide data collected at multiple coastal sites (external) Wave data collected by waverider buoys (external) Satellite data (SST, SSChlA, SPM) (external)

11. Modeling program: 3 level nested model, ranging from 12 km resolution to 1.2 km 4 th higher resolution (200 m) model is planned but not currently displayed on web site Higher resolution model for Liverpool Bay will include wetting and drying Supported by weather model and wave model, river inputs are currently climatology (according to paper, not contradicted on web site) Run daily in near real-time, results available on web (but no model-data comparisons on web

12. 7 km scale model is fully coupled hydrodynamic-sediment-ecosystem model Hydrodynamic model is finite difference model (POLCOMS) Ecosystem model is functional group model

13. POLCOMS: Proudman Oceanographic Laboratory Coastal Ocean Modeling System 3-D baroclinic Finite difference model Uses Arakawa B-grid (u defined a grid cell centers, scalars defined at grid cell edge points) Uses modified s-levels (level spacing refines only at the surface) (20-30 levels) Uses polar spherical coordinates Equation of motion Equation of state Turbulence closure scheme: Mellor-Yamada-Galperin level 2.5Turbulence closure scheme Short barotropic timestep, long baroclinic timestep Numerical solution