The role of the ocean in tropical cyclone (TC) genesis and intensification has been a subject of study for many years, with particular emphasis on the tropical Atlantic and eastern tropical Pacific. Following the unprecedented active 2020 hurricane season, this session places particular emphasis on ocean observing platforms (in situ and remote) and how these observations can be used in both analysis and the initialization of ocean-atmosphere coupled forecast models for an improved, integrated ocean observing system design for TC intensity studies and forecasts. This session requests abstracts that focus on 1) monitoring and understanding the state of the ocean, 2) characterizing the mean state of the ocean and its variability in synoptic time scales to improve the understanding of ocean-atmosphere during high wind events, and 3) working to improve the ocean representation in ocean-atmosphere coupled models to demonstrate a reduction in the error of hurricane intensity forecasts.