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OSCAR OSCAR stands for Ocean Surface Currents Analysis in Real time. It is not a forecast of ocean currents, and its results are not the product of an ocean model like RTOFS and NCOM. OSCAR current data, which are indeed current vectors every 20 nmi presented to us in grib format, represent a sliding average of the current flow at any point on earth over the past 10 days. It is computed based on satellite measurements of the height of the sea surface and the surface temperature, along with wind forecasts from the GFS model, and other input data. The calculations are updated every 5 days. The values we see are the average over the past 10 days. OSCAR will usually provide a minimum speed one might expect, and the likely directions, but the actual speeds it reports will almost always be less than the dynamic values from a numerical model such as RTOFS and NCOM, because it is averaging over 10 days and the speeds and directions vary over that period. OSCAR data are easy to come by and also available from Saildocs.

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