Published by the American Geophysical Union as part of the Coastal and Estuarine Studies, Volume 56. Coastal Ocean Prediction is being published during a period when operational coastal ocean prediction systems are emerging in Europe, Asia, Australia, and North America. Some of these systems are linked to activities of the Global Ocean Observing System, sponsored by the Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission, World Meteorological Organization, United Nations Environmental Program, and the International Council of Scientific Unions. The Global Ocean Observing System is itself an emergent program of model?]based operational (i.e., continual and governmentally sanctioned) monitoring with coastal ocean, as well as fully global, components.