Background and Research Expertise
Miesse presenting this data on a poster at the 2025 Arctic Science Summit Week in Boulder, Colorado. Photo credit: Tyler Miesse.
Tyler Miesse is a PhD research assistant at George Mason University, and is involved in coastal engineering projects that focus on the physical processes that govern coastal hazards such as waves and storm surges. His research background naturally led him to research in the Arctic, a region experiencing rapid environmental changes and home to one of the least studied coastal systems in the world.
As Miesse notes, there is a limited understanding of how changes like sea ice declining are propagating through Arctic coastal systems. This combination of scientific uncertainty and accelerated environmental change has made the Arctic a challenging yet compelling area for research, particularly to better understand the lives of those most affected by these changes.
A central question guiding Miesse’s research is to further understand how ongoing environmental changes are influencing waves, coastal flooding, and the timing of hazardous conditions along Arctic coastlines. Additionally, Miesse is working to understand how these changes are unfolding over time. Since long-term Arctic observations are limited, it can be challenging to know what weather events are due to natural variability and which are signs of climate change.
Dataset Highlight
Image of an area in the North Slope. Photo credit: Tyler Miesse
Miesse’s dataset includes a 45-year hydrodynamic hindcast of storm-driven water levels across Northern and Western Alaska. Hindcasting is a model approach to recreate historical conditions, and allow researchers to simulate past coastal processes. In this case, Miesse is using sea ice concentration and atmospheric forcing to support the simulations in the dataset.
Using a ADCIRC+SWAN modeling framework, Miesse was able to simulate interactions between the ocean, land, sea ice, and atmosphere, focusing on the period from 1979 to 2024 for Western to Northern Alaska coasts. The model also leveraged data from the European Centre for Medium Range Weather Forecasts Re-Analysis (ERA5) to support the simulations and create the long-term dataset used to investigate the annual conditions along the Alaskan Arctic coastline.
To support data reuse, Miesse ensured this dataset included comprehensive metadata to allow future users of the data to clearly understand how the data was generated and how it can be applied in other contexts. To explore more, visit the model output on the Arctic Data Center:
Methods and Impact
In developing this dataset, a combination of numerical modeling, historical atmospheric data, and long-term simulations helped fill in the gaps of the direct observations. Additionally, Miesse used established hydrodynamic and wave models to simulate waves and water levels based on sea ice conditions and atmospheric inputs such as winds and pressure. These models were run consistently over decades of observational data with the exact framework in order to build the long-term series that could be examined without artificial differences caused by changing methods.
The resulting dataset spans several decades and provides a continuous picture of how waves and coastal water levels have evolved across Northern and Western Alaska. This long-term and consistent approach also made it possible to study trends, seasonal shifts, and extreme events in a way that would not be feasible using observational data alone. By providing a foundation, the dataset supports other Arctic science efforts seeking to model and better understand how Arctic coastlines are responding to environmental changes.
Screenshot of the Alaska Coastal Hazards Information System ArcGIS map.
Technological Innovations
Improving both the quantity and quality of available data in the Arctic is one of Miesse’s hopes for the future. He notes there is a significant need to expand observational coverage, particularly through more robust and autonomous monitoring systems that can operate year-round in harsh Arctic conditions. As satellite remote sensing continues to improve, Miesse emphasizes the importance of enhancing our ability to observe changes consistently over time, particularly in regions where observations are often limited by poor weather conditions and accessibility.
Now, these goals are beginning to take shape through collaborative efforts at George Mason University and the University of Alaska Anchorage. Together, Miesse and his team are developing the Alaska Coastal Hazards Information System, which is ArcGIS based map that incorporates multiple layers of coastal data including community locations, storm surge events from the past 45 years, county boundaries, and more. While the map is still under development, it aims to serve as an accessible resources for understanding coastal hazards across Alaska.
Looking ahead, Miesse notes that better coupling of atmospheric, ocean, and sea ice models, along with improved representation of ice and ocean interactions, could allow researchers to capture Arctic processes more realistically. Like many other researchers express, better computational resources would allow the whole Arctic research landscape to have improved, higher-resolution, and long-term simulations to help understand the extreme and seasonal changes of the region. Ultimately, Miesse wants to see further development of open and accessible data platforms that would allow long-term Arctic datasets easier to access, share, and integrate across disciplines.
Image of Miesse’s advisor in the North Slope. Photo credit: Tyler Miesse
Collaboration Across Disciplines
Collaboration is central to this dataset, which is part of a greater collaborative project in the Navigating the New Arctic program designed to address complex Arctic changes through interdisciplinary collaboration. This project is known as NNA Track 1: Arctic impacts and reverberations of expanding global maritime trade routes, and it is focused on understanding how rapid environmental change in the Arctic is reshaping maritime activity, and how those changes ripple through natural, built, and human systems.
Funded by the National Science Foundation under Award #1927785, the project’s interdisciplinary structure has allowed Miesse’s research to remain grounded in his expertise in coastal hazards and hydrodynamics, while also expanding the dataset’s scope to consider other maritime operations. As a result, this dataset contributes to the physical science component of the project with the development of a long-term record of waves and storm-driven water levels for Arctic Alaska.
To learn more about this project,explore the Arctic Expansion data portal hosted by the Arctic Data Center, which brings together additional datasets from NNA Track 1:
Data Accessibility on the Arctic Data Center
The Arctic Data Center has played a key role in making this dataset openly accessible. The highlighted dataset spans 45 years and exceeds 200 terabytes, requiring significant processing time and storage size. By hosting the dataset on our repository, the data can be shared more broadly rather than being limited to a single project or research group. This accessibility allows other scientists to explore the data, build on the results, and apply it to new research questions without restraints or limitations to recreate the simulations themselves.
Encouraging Future Scientists
Miesse encourages future scientists to stay curious and to ask the difficult questions, particularly in Arctic research where systems are challenging to navigate and not yet fully understood. He emphasizes that progress depends more on scientists who are motivated to push beyond what is already known. Advancing Arctic science requires persistence, openness to learning, and a genuine interest in expanding our collective understanding.
Written by Angie Garcia
Community Engagement and Outreach Coordinator