Extreme Wave Analysis by Integrating Model and Wave Buoy Data

• Published in: Water
• Main Authors: Fabio Dentale, Pierluigi Furcolo, Eugenio Pugliese Carratelli, Ferdinando Reale, Pasquale Contestabile, Giuseppe Roberto Tomasicchio
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: MDPI AG 2018
• Subjects: wave extreme events; Mediterranean Sea; North Atlantic Spanish coasts; Gulf of Mexico; wave modeling; small scale storm variations; Hydraulic engineering; TC1-978; Water supply for domestic and industrial purposes; TD201-500; North Atlantic
• Online Access: https://doi.org/10.3390/w10040373; https://doaj.org/article/5b3359c38ed6467eb241e6441036b140

Estimating the extreme values of significant wave height (HS), generally described by the HS return period TR function HS(TR) and by its confidence intervals, is a necessity in many branches of coastal science and engineering. The availability of indirect wave data generated by global and regional wind and wave model chains have brought radical changes to the estimation procedures of such probability distribution—weather and wave modeling systems are routinely run all over the world, and HS time series for each grid point are produced and published after assimilation (analysis) of the ground truth. However, while the sources of such indirect data are numerous, and generally of good quality, many aspects of their procedures are hidden to the users, who cannot evaluate the reliability and the limits of the HS(TR) deriving from such data. In order to provide a simple engineering tool to evaluate the probability of extreme sea-states as well as the quality of such estimates, we propose here a procedure based on integrating HS time series generated by model chains with those recorded by wave buoys in the same area.