FAQ's
Quick Start Guide
-
If not already selected, click the Regions button at
the top left (this is the default option).
-
On the map, click the colored circle representing your region of interest. When the map
zooms into the selected region, click any of the individual pins and the most recent
total water level forecast for that site will appear on the right.
- To see historical forecasts, choose a forecast date from the calendar displayed by clicking
the Select Forecast Date button.
- To view details for different site in the current region just click a different site
pin on the map.
- To view a different region just click the
Regions button above the map to reset the viewer and
map.
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Terminology
- Region:
- A broad geographical area that includes many forecast sites.
- Site:
- A specific coastal location where a total water level and coastal change forecast has been
generated.
- Total Water Level (TWL):
- This is the elevation where the ocean meets the coast and includes the combination of tides,
surge, and
wave runup.
-
Dune Erosion/Overwash/Inundation
Coastal Change Forecasts:
- Detailed information about these types of coastal change, which occur during storm events,
is available at the linked web pages by clicking each term.
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Advanced Features and Tips
Favorites
The map can display sites within a region (region view) or all sites you have selected as
favorites (favorites view). The
Favorites map view button is
disabled until you have added at least one site to your favorites.
To add a site as a favorite simply click the Favorite
button at the bottom of the site information balloon that appears in the map when you
click on a site pin.
Click the
Favorite button again to remove it (button will turn
white again).
To view all your favorites on the map, switch to favorite view by clicking the
Favorites button at the top of the left pane.
Favorites are stored in a cookie on your computer’s hard drive and are browser dependent. If
you switch to a different computer then you will find your favorites are missing. Likewise
if you save your favorites while using Chrome, and then switched to Firefox or Safari, even
on the same computer, you favorites will also be missing.
To see your favorites again switch back to the same computer and browser you originally used
to save your favorites.
If you clear your cookies your favorites will be deleted with them and will not be
recoverable. Use caution!
A favorite import/export function is planned to be added to the viewer in the future.
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Show Most Recent Forecast Button
The
Show Most Recent Forecast
button is the default selection and provides the latest forecast that has been produced
for each site.
Forecasts are typically updated daily and sometimes multiple times per day. There may,
however, be times when the system is delayed and forecasts are not available.
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Missing Forecasts
The development of this forecast system started at a few pilot sites but is continuing to
expand with the plan of eventually achieving nationwide coverage.
During phases of development and expansion, things may break, and the forecast in
some areas could be delayed.
If that happens, go enjoy a cup of coffee and then come back to check out the forecast at
your favorite sites later!
If the forecast doesn't update for multiple days, feel free to
shoot us a message and let us
know.
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Select Forecast Date Button
The Select Forecast Date button provides the ability to
view previous forecasts back to the point the region was added to the viewer (as far as
back as March 2016 for our initial sites).
The calendar that is displayed when clicking the
Select Forecast Date button is color
coded to indicate the most severe coastal change prediction for that day based on the
current map view.
In Regions view it will be the most severe coastal change prediction found at any site in the
selected region. In Favorite view it will indicate the most severe coastal change prediction
found across all of your current favorite sites (regardless of whether a site was a favorite
at the time). Background colors on the calendar match those of the map pins and their meaning
can be seen in the map legend. Hovering over a date will also detail the most severe coastal
change prediction in a text popup. Grey dates that cannot be selected are dates for which a
forecast is not available for your current map view. After selecting a date from the
calendar, click on an individual pin to see the total water level forecast for that date.
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Map Controls
The map’s background tiles may be changed to display different map types (satellite, street,
topographic, and oceanographic). Also, site pins for the various predicted coastal change types
can be hidden and reshown. This is all done using the layer
button in the top left of the map (stylized by three stacked sheets).
Simply click the layer button to expand it and then choose
different map types from the selection on the left and/or show and hide site pins using
the buttons on the right. A faded button indicates that type of pin has been hidden.
Clicking again will redisplay it.
The site details balloon that appears when a site pin is clicked can be removed from the map by
clicking the
X in the top right corner of the balloon. Click the
pin again to redisplay it.
You can pan the map by clicking and dragging the map using any map area not occupied by a pin or
balloon. The map may be zoomed using touch, a mouse scroll wheel, or the + and – buttons in the
top left of the map. A map scale in the bottom right adjusts accordingly.
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Coastal Change Forecast Summary Tables
A coastal change summary table that lists the sites with predicted dune impacts is displayed
below the map after you have selected a region of interest. Details include the number of
impacted sites and the duration of forecasted impact.
Sites are displayed in separate tables by the predicted type coastal change (Dune Erosion,
Overwash, and Inundation) and each table may be expanded or collapsed by clicking on the
table header. You can click a table row to select that site which shows the total water level
forecast, similar to clicking on a site pin on the map.
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Forecast Time Series
The time series on the top right shows the total water level over the complete duration of the
forecast.
To view a small section in greater detail click and drag over the time period of interest.
To return to normal zoom level double click anywhere in the time chart.
Zooming the time chart will stop the beach profile animation if it is playing. Starting the
animation or moving the animation slider while zoomed will reset the zoom level.
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Beach Profile Animation
On initial display of the total water level forecast for a site the beach profile animation will
run through one complete forecast before stopping.
Playback may be started again by clicking the combination
Play/Stop button found in the animation controls. The Stop button will halt the animation at the date and time the
button was pressed. Pressing Play will resume animation
from the currently displayed date and time. You may manually control the animation by
dragging the slider control handle left or right along its track either while the
animation is playing or while stopped.
The position of the slider is shown by the black vertical bar in the time series graph which
indicates the date and time the animation is currently displaying in the beach profile
graphic. This date and time is also detailed in text below the slider.
The beach and dune fill color changes to indicate what type of coastal change is expected to
affect the dune at the currently displayed date and time; details of what each color
means can be seen in the chart legend.
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Data Access and Sources
Manually Downloading Individual Forecast Data
If you are viewing a forecast of particular interest and would like to download the total
water level and dune data for further processing and study you may use the
Download This Forecast button found in the map popup
for the displayed site. Then simply select the format your would prefer the data to be in
from the options of JSON, XML, or CSV. A Zip file will then be made available for
you to download.
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Programmatically Accessing Forecast Data For Your Own Processing
A REST compliant API has been made available to permit programmatic download of as
much or as little forecast data as you would like via HTTP requests.
All current and historical forecast and dune data can be downloaded in either
JSON, XML, or CSV format.
For more information view the API Documentation.
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Data Sources That Power The TWL&CC Forecast Viewer
Coastal Feature Elevation Data: All coastal feature elevation data can be
downloaded from the continuously updated
USGS Lidar-derived Beach Morphology (Dune Crest, Dune Toe, and Shoreline)
for U.S. Sandy Coastlines data release.
Predicted Water Levels and Wave Conditions: Predictions of water levels and
wave conditions released over the last five days can be downloaded from the
NOAA Nearshore Wave Prediction System
FTP site at
ftp://polar.ncep.noaa.gov/nwps.
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Want more information?
Click on the Information button below or use the
circular i button in the top left of the viewer
window.
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Have feedback?
For questions and feedback about the data presented within the viewer please
contact the lead scientist
Kara Doran.
For questions, feedback, and bug reports regarding the Viewer page please contact the
web developer
Richard Snell.
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total water level
sum of tide, wind surge, and wave runup values
95% confidence
based on spatial/temporal uncertainty in beach slope
mean water level
sum of tide, wind surge, and wave setup values
dune/berm crest elevation
dune/berm toe elevation
dune impact regime
beach profile is colored to represent:
