Potential Changes in the Joint Probabilistic Description of the North Atlantic Wave Climate

Author(s):  
Elzbieta M. Bitner-Gregersen ◽  
Odin Gramstad

Climate changes include natural climate variability and anthropogenic climate change. The latter is leading to global warming and causes changes in metocean conditions. For most marine structures waves represent the dominant environmental load. Therefore, projections of changes of wave characteristics in the 21st century are crucial with respect to design and marine operations. The study investigates potential changes in simultaneous occurrence of significant wave height and spectral wave period in twelve North Atlantic locations by comparing the past and future wave climate. Two IPCC emission scenarios, with radiative forcing of 4.5 and 8.5 W/m2 by the end of the 21st century, have been selected to project future wave conditions. The third generation (3G) wave model WAM with a resolution of 50 km is used to simulate waves. The model has been forced with winds obtained from six CMIP5 climate models for the historical period 1971–2000 and the future period 2071–2100 for the two emissions scenarios. Wave climate projections obtained from one climate model and one ensemble member are presented herein to indicate potential changes in extreme wave characteristics derived from the long-term joint probabilistic model of significant wave height and spectral wave period. Deviations between the past and future wave climate are shown, given attention to the shape of the joint distribution and wave steepness. Uncertainties associated with the presented results are discussed.

2015 ◽  
Vol 69 (1) ◽  
pp. 127-144 ◽  
Author(s):  
Roberto Vettor ◽  
C. Guedes Soares

The wave climate along the main transoceanic routes of the North Atlantic sub basin is determined using three different databases: two derived by numerical models in the HIPOCAS and ERA40 databases and one from Voluntary Observing Ships. For each route the distribution of the mean significant wave height along the path is computed as well as the specific scatter diagram. In addition an assessment of the relative wave heading probability is provided. The results highlight a bias in the visual observations especially in the summer and, more in general, for low sea states. The correction of this bias allows better understanding of rough weather avoidance by ships and to determine a storm avoidance correction.


2021 ◽  
Vol 9 (3) ◽  
pp. 309
Author(s):  
James Allen ◽  
Gregorio Iglesias ◽  
Deborah Greaves ◽  
Jon Miles

The WaveCat is a moored Wave Energy Converter design which uses wave overtopping discharge into a variable v-shaped hull, to generate electricity through low head turbines. Physical model tests of WaveCat WEC were carried out to determine the device reflection, transmission, absorption and capture coefficients based on selected wave conditions. The model scale was 1:30, with hulls of 3 m in length, 0.4 m in height and a freeboard of 0.2 m. Wave gauges monitored the surface elevation at discrete points around the experimental area, and level sensors and flowmeters recorded the amount of water captured and released by the model. Random waves of significant wave height between 0.03 m and 0.12 m and peak wave periods of 0.91 s to 2.37 s at model scale were tested. The wedge angle of the device was set to 60°. A reflection analysis was carried out using a revised three probe method and spectral analysis of the surface elevation to determine the incident, reflected and transmitted energy. The results show that the reflection coefficient is highest (0.79) at low significant wave height and low peak wave period, the transmission coefficient is highest (0.98) at low significant wave height and high peak wave period, and absorption coefficient is highest (0.78) when significant wave height is high and peak wave period is low. The model also shows the highest Capture Width Ratio (0.015) at wavelengths on the order of model length. The results have particular implications for wave energy conversion prediction potential using this design of device.


Author(s):  
Catarina S. Soares ◽  
C. Guedes Soares

This paper presents the results of a comparison of the fit of three bivariate models to a set of 14 years of significant wave height and peak wave period data from the North Sea. One of the methods defines the joint distribution from a marginal distribution of significant wave height and a set of distributions of peak period conditional on significant wave height. Other method applies the Plackett model to the data and the third one applies the Box-Cox transformation to the data in order to make it approximately normal and then fits a bivariate normal distribution to the transformed data set. It is shown that all methods provide a good fit but each one have its own strengths and weaknesses, being the choice dependent on the data available and applications in mind.


2020 ◽  
Vol 8 (12) ◽  
pp. 1039
Author(s):  
Ben Timmermans ◽  
Andrew G. P. Shaw ◽  
Christine Gommenginger

Measurements of significant wave height from satellite altimeter missions are finding increasing application in investigations of wave climate, sea state variability and trends, in particular as the means to mitigate the general sparsity of in situ measurements. However, many questions remain over the suitability of altimeter data for the representation of extreme sea states and applications in the coastal zone. In this paper, the limitations of altimeter data to estimate coastal Hs extremes (<10 km from shore) are investigated using the European Space Agency Sea State Climate Change Initiative L2P altimeter data v1.1 product recently released. This Sea State CCI product provides near complete global coverage and a continuous record of 28 years. It is used here together with in situ data from moored wave buoys at six sites around the coast of the United States. The limitations of estimating extreme values based on satellite data are quantified and linked to several factors including the impact of data corruption nearshore, the influence of coastline morphology and local wave climate dynamics, and the spatio-temporal sampling achieved by altimeters. The factors combine to lead to considerable underestimation of estimated Hs 10-yr return levels. Sensitivity to these factors is evaluated at specific sites, leading to recommendations about the use of satellite data to estimate extremes and their temporal evolution in coastal environments.


2007 ◽  
Vol 129 (4) ◽  
pp. 300-305 ◽  
Author(s):  
Philip Jonathan ◽  
Kevin Ewans

Inherent uncertainties in estimation of extreme wave heights in hurricane-dominated regions are explored using data from the GOMOS Gulf of Mexico hindcast for 1900–2005. In particular, the effect of combining correlated values from a neighborhood of 72 grid locations on extreme wave height estimation is quantified. We show that, based on small data samples, extreme wave heights are underestimated and site averaging usually improves estimates. We present a bootstrapping approach to evaluate uncertainty in extreme wave height estimates. We also argue in favor of modeling supplementary indicators for extreme wave characteristics, such as a high percentile (95%) of the distribution of 100-year significant wave height, in addition to its most probable value, especially for environments where the distribution of 100-year significant wave height is strongly skewed.


2017 ◽  
Vol 135 ◽  
pp. 170-182 ◽  
Author(s):  
Chendi Wang ◽  
Jianfang Fei ◽  
Juli Ding ◽  
Ruiqing Hu ◽  
Xiaogang Huang ◽  
...  

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