scholarly journals Marine Wind and Wave Height Trends at Different ERA-Interim Forecast Ranges

2015 ◽  
Vol 28 (2) ◽  
pp. 819-837 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ole Johan Aarnes ◽  
Saleh Abdalla ◽  
Jean-Raymond Bidlot ◽  
Øyvind Breivik

Abstract Trends in marine wind speed and significant wave height are investigated using the global reanalysis ERA-Interim over the period 1979–2012, based on monthly-mean and monthly-maximum data. Besides the traditional reanalysis, the authors include trends obtained at different forecast range, available up to 10 days ahead. Any model biases that are corrected differently over time are likely to introduce spurious trends of variable magnitude. However, at increased forecast range the model tends to relax, being less affected by assimilation. Still, there is a trade-off between removing the impact of data assimilation at longer forecast range and getting a lower level of uncertainty in the predictions at shorter forecast range. Because of the sheer amount of assimilations made in ERA-Interim, directly and indirectly affecting the data, it is difficult, if not impossible, to distinguish effects imposed by all updates. Here, special emphasis is put on the introduction of wave altimeter data in August 1991, the only type of data directly affecting the wave field. From this, it is shown that areas of higher model bias introduce quite different trends depending on forecast range, most apparent in the North Atlantic and eastern tropical Pacific. Results are compared with 23 in situ measurements, Envisat altimeter winds, and two stand-alone ECMWF operational wave model (EC-WAM) runs with and without wave altimeter assimilation. Here, the 48-h forecast is suggested to be a better candidate for trend estimates of wave height, mainly due to the step change imposed by altimeter observations. Even though wind speed seems less affected by undesirable step changes, the authors believe that the 24–48-h forecast more effectively filters out any unwanted effects.

2017 ◽  
Vol 17 (14) ◽  
pp. 9019-9033 ◽  
Author(s):  
Thomas G. Bell ◽  
Sebastian Landwehr ◽  
Scott D. Miller ◽  
Warren J. de Bruyn ◽  
Adrian H. Callaghan ◽  
...  

Abstract. Simultaneous air–sea fluxes and concentration differences of dimethylsulfide (DMS) and carbon dioxide (CO2) were measured during a summertime North Atlantic cruise in 2011. This data set reveals significant differences between the gas transfer velocities of these two gases (Δkw) over a range of wind speeds up to 21 m s−1. These differences occur at and above the approximate wind speed threshold when waves begin breaking. Whitecap fraction (a proxy for bubbles) was also measured and has a positive relationship with Δkw, consistent with enhanced bubble-mediated transfer of the less soluble CO2 relative to that of the more soluble DMS. However, the correlation of Δkw with whitecap fraction is no stronger than with wind speed. Models used to estimate bubble-mediated transfer from in situ whitecap fraction underpredict the observations, particularly at intermediate wind speeds. Examining the differences between gas transfer velocities of gases with different solubilities is a useful way to detect the impact of bubble-mediated exchange. More simultaneous gas transfer measurements of different solubility gases across a wide range of oceanic conditions are needed to understand the factors controlling the magnitude and scaling of bubble-mediated gas exchange.


Author(s):  
Arndt Hildebrandt ◽  
Remo Cossu

There are several intentions to analyze the correlation of wind and wave data, especially in the North Sea. Fatigue damage is intensified by wind and wave loads acting from different directions, due to the misaligned aerodynamic damping of the rotor regarding the wave loads from lateral directions. Furthermore, construction time and costs are mainly driven by the operational times of the working vessels, which strongly depend on the wind and wave occurrence and correlation. Turbulent wind can rapidly change its direction and intensity, while the inert water waves react slowly in relation to the wind profile. Tuerk (2008) investigates the impact of wind and turbulence on offshore wind turbines by analyzing data of four years. The study shows that the wave height is increasing with higher wind speeds but when the wind speed drops the reaction of the waves is postponed. The dependence of the wave height on the wind speed is varying because of the atmospheric stability and different wind directions. Fischer et al. (2011) estimated absolute values of misalignment between wind and waves located in the Dutch North Sea. The study presents decreasing misalignment for increasing wind speeds, ranging up to 90 degrees for wind speeds below 12 m/s and up to 30 degrees for wind speeds above 20 m/s. Bredmose et al. (2013) present a method of offshore wind and wave simulation by using metocean data. The study describes characteristics of the wind and wave climate for the North and Baltic Sea as well as the directional distribution of wind and waves. Güner et al. (2013) cover the development of a statistical wave model for the Karaburun coastal zone located at the southwest coast of the Black Sea with the help of wind and wave measurements and showed that the height of the waves is directly correlating with the duration of the wind for the last four hours.


2020 ◽  
Vol 33 (2) ◽  
pp. 611-624 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alberto Meucci ◽  
Ian R. Young ◽  
Ole Johan Aarnes ◽  
Øyvind Breivik

AbstractThe trends in marine 10-m wind speed U10 and significant wave height Hs found in two century-long reanalyses are compared against a model-only integration. Reanalyses show spurious trends due to the assimilation of an increasing number of observations over time. The comparisons between model and reanalyses show that the areas where the discrepancies in U10 and Hs trends are greatest are also the areas where there is a marked increase in assimilated observations. Large differences in the yearly averages call into question the quality of the observations assimilated by the reanalyses, resulting in unreliable U10 and Hs trends before the 1950s. Four main regions of the world’s oceans are identified where the trends between model and reanalyses deviate strongly. These are the North Atlantic, the North Pacific, the Tasman Sea, and the western South Atlantic. The trends at +24-h lead time are markedly weaker and less correlated with the observation count. A 1985–2010 comparison with an extensive dataset of calibrated satellite altimeters shows contrasting results in Hs trends but similar U10 spatial trend distributions, with general agreement between model, reanalyses, and satellite altimeters on a broad increase in wind speed over the Southern Hemisphere.


2020 ◽  
Vol 50 (5) ◽  
pp. 1417-1433
Author(s):  
Ian R. Young ◽  
Emmanuel Fontaine ◽  
Qingxiang Liu ◽  
Alexander V. Babanin

AbstractThe wave climate of the Southern Ocean is investigated using a combined dataset from 33 years of altimeter data, in situ buoy measurements at five locations, and numerical wave model hindcasts. The analysis defines the seasonal variation in wind speed and significant wave height, as well as wind speed and significant wave height for a 1-in-100-year return period. The buoy data include an individual wave with a trough to crest height of 26.4 m and suggest that waves in excess of 30 m would occur in the region. The extremely long fetches, persistent westerly winds, and procession of low pressure systems that traverse the region generate wave spectra that are unique. These spectra are unimodal but with peak frequencies that propagate much faster than the local wind. This situation results in a unique energy balance in which waves at the spectra peak grow as a result of nonlinear transfer without any input from the local wind.


2014 ◽  
Vol 14 (2) ◽  
pp. 2363-2401 ◽  
Author(s):  
H. C. Steen-Larsen ◽  
A. E. Sveinbjörnsdottir ◽  
A. J. Peters ◽  
V. Masson-Delmotte ◽  
M. P. Guishard ◽  
...  

Abstract. Continuous, in situ measurements of water vapor isotopic composition have been conducted in the North Atlantic, Bermuda Islands (32.26° N, 64.88° W) between November 2011 and June~2013, using a~cavity-ring-down-spectrometer water vapor isotope analyzer and an autonomous self-designed calibration system. Meticulous calibration allows us to reach an accuracy and precision on 10 min average of δ18O, δD, and d-excess of respectively 0.14 ‰, 0.85 ‰, and 1.1 ‰, verified using two parallel instruments with independent calibration. As a result of more than 500 days with 6 hourly data the relationships between deuterium excess, relative humidity (rh), sea surface temperature (SST), wind speed and direction are assessed. From the whole dataset, 84% of d-excess variance is explained by a strong linear relationship with relative humidity. The slope of this relationship (−42.6 ± 0.4 ‰ % (rh)) is similar to the theoretical prediction of Merlivat and Jouzel (1979) for SST between 20 °C and 30 °C. However, in contrast with theory, no effect of wind speed could be detected on the relationship between d-excess and relative humidity. Separating the dataset into winter, spring, summer, and autumn seasons reveals different linear relationships between d-excess and humidity. Changes in wind directions are observed to affect the relationships between d-excess and humidity. The observed seasonal variability in the relationship between d-excess and relative humidity underlines the importance of long-term monitoring to make accurate conclusions.


2009 ◽  
Vol 39 (11) ◽  
pp. 2800-2819 ◽  
Author(s):  
Georgia D. Kalantzi ◽  
Christine Gommenginger ◽  
Meric Srokosz

Abstract Wave-breaking dissipation is one of the least understood processes implemented in contemporary wave models. Significant effort has been put in its parameterization, but it has not proven to be totally satisfactory, either theoretically or practically. In this work, the WAVEWATCH III (version 2.22; Tolman) wave model is used to evaluate the two wind input/dissipation source term packages that it includes: (i) Wave Model (WAM) cycle 3 (WAMDIG) and (ii) Tolman and Chalikov. Global model outputs were obtained under the same wind forcing for the two dissipation formulations and were collocated in space and time in the north Indian Ocean with Ocean Topography Experiment (TOPEX) altimeter data. The performance of the model was assessed by evaluating the statistical behavior of the collocated datasets. The parameters examined were significant wave height, wind speed, wind direction, wave direction, wave height for fully developed seas, and energy loss due to wave breaking. From the results, the behavior of the input/dissipation formulations in specific wind and wave conditions was identified; that is, the results give insight to the way the two source term packages “work” and how they respond to local wind sea or swell. Specifically, both of the packages were unable to perform adequately during a season when the area can be mostly affected by swell. However, the results confirmed that the examination of only integral spectral wave parameters does not give information on the inherent physical characteristics of the formulations. Further study, on the basis of point spectra, is necessary to examine the formulations’ performance across the wave spectrum.


2014 ◽  
Vol 14 (15) ◽  
pp. 7741-7756 ◽  
Author(s):  
H. C. Steen-Larsen ◽  
A. E. Sveinbjörnsdottir ◽  
A. J. Peters ◽  
V. Masson-Delmotte ◽  
M. P. Guishard ◽  
...  

Abstract. Continuous, in situ measurements of water vapor isotopic composition have been conducted in the North Atlantic, at the Bermuda Islands (32.26° N, 64.88° W), between November 2011 and June 2013, using a cavity ring-down spectrometer water vapor isotope analyzer and an autonomous self-designed calibration system. Meticulous calibration allows us to reach an accuracy and precision on 10 min average of δ18O, δ D, and d-excess of, 0.14, 0.85, and 1.1‰, verified using two parallel instruments with independent calibration. As a result of more than 500 days with 6-hourly data the relationships between deuterium excess, relative humidity (RH), sea surface temperature (SST), wind speed, and wind direction are assessed. From the whole data set, 84 % of d-excess variance is explained by a strong linear relationship with relative humidity. The slope of this relationship (−42.6 ± 0.4‰ % (RH)) is similar to the theoretical prediction of Merlivat and Jouzel (1979) for SST between 20 and 30 °C. However, in contrast with theory, no effect of wind speed could be detected on the relationship between d-excess and relative humidity. Separating the data set into winter, spring, summer, and autumn seasons reveals different linear relationships between d-excess and humidity. Changes in wind directions are observed to affect the relationships between d-excess and humidity. The observed seasonal variability in the relationship between d-excess and relative humidity underlines the importance of long-term monitoring to make accurate conclusions.


2010 ◽  
Vol 25 (5) ◽  
pp. 1543-1567 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yung Y. Chao ◽  
Hendrik L. Tolman

Abstract Unprecedented numbers of tropical cyclones occurred in the North Atlantic Ocean and the Gulf of Mexico in 2005. This provides a unique opportunity to evaluate the performance of two operational regional wave forecasting models at the National Centers for Environmental Prediction (NCEP). This study validates model predictions of the tropical cyclone–generated maximum significant wave height, simultaneous spectral peak wave period, and the time of occurrence against available buoy measurements from the National Data Buoy Center (NDBC). The models used are third-generation operational wave models: the Western North Atlantic wave model (WNA) and the North Atlantic Hurricane wave model (NAH). These two models have identical model physics, spatial resolutions, and domains, with the latter model using specialized hurricane wind forcing. Both models provided consistent estimates of the maximum wave height and period, with random errors of typically less than 25%, and timing errors of typically less than 5 h. Compared to these random errors, systematic model biases are negligible, with a typical negative model bias of 5%. It appears that higher wave model resolutions are needed to fully utilize the specialized hurricane wind forcing, and it is shown that present routine wave observations are inadequate to accurately validate hurricane wave models.


2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Thomas G. Bell ◽  
Sebastian Landwehr ◽  
Scott D. Miller ◽  
Warren J. de Bruyn ◽  
Adrian Callaghan ◽  
...  

Abstract. Simultaneous air/sea fluxes and concentration differences of dimethylsulfide (DMS) and carbon dioxide (CO2) were measured during a summertime North Atlantic cruise in 2011. This dataset reveals significant differences between the gas transfer velocities of these two gases (Δkw) over a range of wind speeds up to 21 m  s−1. These differences occur at and above the approximate wind speed threshold when waves begin breaking. Whitecap fraction (a proxy for bubbles) was also measured and has a positive relationship with Δkw, consistent with enhanced bubble-mediated transfer of the less soluble CO2 relative to that of the more soluble DMS. However, the correlation of Δkw with whitecap fraction is no stronger than with wind speed. Models used to estimate bubble-mediated transfer from in situ whitecap fraction under-predict the observations, particularly at intermediate wind speeds. Examining the differences between gas transfer velocities of gases with different solubilities is a useful way to detect the impact of bubble-mediated exchange. More simultaneous gas transfer measurements of different solubility gases across a wide range of oceanic conditions are needed to understand the factors controlling the magnitude and scaling of bubble-mediated gas exchange.


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