---
id: engines/noaa-gnome
about:
  label: GNOME (NOAA)
  description: >-
    NOAA's oil spill trajectory model: given a spill, it shows where wind and
    currents are likely to carry the oil, how uncertain that is, and how the oil
    weathers on the surface; free on the web as WebGNOME.
  tags:
    - oil spill
    - trajectory
    - ocean currents
    - emergency response
tool:
  form: 'web application (WebGNOME), part of the GNOME Suite'
  group: Wildlife and oceans
  homepage: >-
    https://response.restoration.noaa.gov/oil-and-chemical-spills/oil-spills/response-tools/gnome.html
  cost: free
domains:
  - water
open:
  source: unknown
  data: unknown
  api: unknown
  participation: unknown
  note: >-
    NOAA's page states no licence. The desktop version is no longer maintained
    and is offered "with no expectation of usefulness or continued
    functionality"; WebGNOME replaces it.
provenance:
  origin: agent
  sources:
    - title: GNOME (NOAA Office of Response and Restoration)
      url: >-
        https://response.restoration.noaa.gov/oil-and-chemical-spills/oil-spills/response-tools/gnome.html
  created: '2026-10-23'
  reviewed: '2026-10-23'
  reviewed_by: 'Claude, from the source listed'
  status: draft
---
GNOME, the General NOAA Operational Modeling Environment, was built by the Emergency Response Division of NOAA's Office of Response and Restoration to predict where a pollutant spilled on water will go.[^1] A user enters a spill, and GNOME moves it with wind, currents and other processes, shows how uncertain the forecast is given uncertain winds and currents, and estimates how the oil changes while it floats.[^1] The result is an animated map of the slick and running totals of oil on the beach, still afloat, or evaporated.[^1]

For a given coast, prepared location files hold the tides and currents.[^1] In diagnostic mode GNOME can instead read the output of outside ocean and weather models.[^1] Its weathering estimates cover the time the oil stays on the water surface.[^1]

The desktop program, last released as version 1.3.10 in 2017, is no longer maintained.[^1] Its successor, WebGNOME, runs in a browser at gnome.orr.noaa.gov as part of NOAA's GNOME Suite.[^1]