Numerical Modeling of Storm Surges in Chesapeake Bay
Abstract
This paper presents the methodology, procedures, and results of numerically modeled high-water levels from 86 historical tropical and extratropical storms throughout Chesapeake Bay. The study is a part of the effort of life-cycle storm flooding analyses to compute mean frequency relationships with standard deviation error estimates. A regional scale hydrodynamic model ADCIRC is used to calculate water levels under high surface winds and low atmospheric pressure associated with the passage of storms. For tropical storms, surface wind and pressure fields were generated with the Planetary Boundary Layer (PBL) model, and storm tracks were from the North Atlantic tropical storm track list. For extratropical storms, wind fields were extracted from the long-term wind hindcast database by the Meteorological Service of Canada and the reanalysis project database by the U.S. National Centers for Environmental Prediction (NCEP) and the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR). The pressure fields were obtained from the NCEP/NCAR database. Model results show a good agreement with measured wind and water levels. A key to the successful modeling was representation of the topography of river tributaries, which flooded during the storm to contain large water storage at peak surge.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Jan 01, 2008
- Accession Number
- ADA595751
Entities
People
- David J. Mark
- Lihwa Lin
- Zeki Demirbilek
Organizations
- Engineer Research and Development Center