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A broad partnership of institutions is collaborating in developing and demonstrating the performance and application of eddy-resolving, real-time global and basin-scale ocean prediction systems using the HYbrid Coordinate Ocean Model (HYCOM). These systems are to be transitioned for operational use by the U.S. Navy at both the Naval Oceanographic Office (NAVOCEANO), Stennis Space Center, MS, and the Fleet Numerical Meteorology and Oceanography Center (FNMOC), Monterey, CA, and by NOAA at the National Centers for Environmental Prediction (NCEP), Washington, D.C. The systems will run efficiently on a variety of massively parallel computers and will include sophisticated, but relatively inexpensive, data assimilation techniques for assimilation of satellite altimeter sea surface height (SSH) and sea surface temperature (SST) as well as in-situ temperature, salinity, and float displacement. The partnership represents a truly broad spectrum of the oceanographic community, bringing together academia, federal agencies, and industry/commercial entities, spanning modeling, data assimilation, data management and serving, observational capabilities, and application of HYCOM prediction system outputs. The institutions participating in this Partnership have long histories of supporting and carrying out a wide range of oceanographic and ocean prediction-related research and data management. All institutions are committed to validating an operational hybrid-coordinate ocean model that combines the strengths of the vertical coordinates used in the present generation of ocean models by placing them where they perform best.