Extreme waves and climatic patterns of variability in the eastern North Atlantic and Mediterranean basins

• Published in: Ocean Science
• Main Authors: Morales Márquez, Verónica, Orfila, Alejandro, Simarro, Gonzalo, Marcos, Marta
• Other Authors: Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad (España), Ministerio de Ciencia, Innovación y Universidades (España), Agencia Estatal de Investigación (España), European Geosciences Union
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: European Geosciences Union 2020
• Subjects: North Atlantic; North Atlantic oscillation
• Online Access: http://hdl.handle.net/10261/309741; https://doi.org/10.5194/os-16-1385-2020; https://api.elsevier.com/content/abstract/scopus_id/85096216912

The spatial and temporal variability of extreme wave climate in the North Atlantic Ocean and the Mediterranean Sea is assessed using a 31-year wave model hindcast. Seasonality accounts for 50% of the extreme wave height variability in the North Atlantic Ocean and up to 70% in some areas of the Mediterranean Sea. Once seasonality is filtered out, the North Atlantic Oscillation and the Scandinavian index are the dominant large-scale atmospheric patterns that control the interannual variability of extreme waves during winters in the North Atlantic Ocean; to a lesser extent, the East Atlantic Oscillation also modulates extreme waves in the central part of the basin. In the Mediterranean Sea, the dominant modes are the East Atlantic and East Atlantic-Western Russia modes, which act strongly during their negative phases. A new methodology for analyzing the atmospheric signature associated with extreme waves is proposed. The method obtains the composites of significant wave height (SWH), mean sea level pressure (MSLP), and 10m height wind velocity (U 10) using the instant when specific climatic indices have a stronger correlation with extreme waves. This research has been supported by the Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación (grant nos. FPI2016, CTM2015-66225-C2-2-P, RTI2018-095441-B-C21, and PRX18/00218) and the European Geosciences Union (EGU OSPP 2019 grant). Peer reviewed