Multi-Scale Summary of Global Wave Statistics
Abstract
Existing North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO)global wind and wave climatology is based on wind-wave models that have since been advanced by multiple generations. This work presents updated wind and wave statistics for global, regional, and local regions on annual and seasonal time scales. Results are derived from the publicly available, 30-year long set of Wavewatch III hindcasts run by the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). A cursory comparison to existing environmental guidance shows potentially significant updates, for example to the probability of occurrence and most-probable period in higher sea states. Sea state probability profiles are compared to a separate 26-year long set of Meto France WAve Model (MFWAM) forecast reanalysis, which corroborates the significant update to regional sea state statistics. Finally, wave buoy observations show that, although the wave models have a tendency to underestimate the occurrence of Sea State 8, the error introduced by this effect is much smaller than the proposed changes to existing guidance.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Jun 01, 2021
- Accession Number
- AD1140103
Entities
People
- Jeffrey D. Campana