3.5
Tropical Cyclone Forcing of Ocean Surface Waves
Chung-Sheng Wu, NOAA/NWS, Silver Spring, MD; and A. A. Taylor, J. Chen, and W. A. Shaffer
Numerical simulation results from a wind wave model and two tropical cyclone wind formulations are integrated to form a practical means for estimating tropical storm seas in the ocean. The horizontal surface wind is derived from the center pressure drop and size of the cyclone. Waves are strongly dependent on the maximum wind and forward speed of the tropical cyclone. The seas are described in the form of the JONSWAP spectrum formulation and as a function of significant wave height and modal frequency. The proposed new formulation is verified with six recent US hurricane cases in which measured wave buoy data are available along the storm track. The performance of the model is within 5% error in significant wave height and 1% error in wave period for the cases studied. The simple model provides a tool for marine applications in forecasting maximum seas and in estimating swell within the cyclone.
Session 3, Waves
Thursday, 7 August 2003, 8:00 AM-9:40 AM
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