Observing storm surges from space: Hurricane Igor off Newfoundland

• Published in: Scientific Reports
• Main Authors: Han, Guoqi, Ma, Zhimin, Chen, Dake, deYoung, Brad, Chen, Nancy
• Format: Text
• Language: English
• Published: Nature Publishing Group 2012
• Subjects: Article; Newfoundland
• Online Access: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3526813; http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23259048; https://doi.org/10.1038/srep01010

Coastal communities are becoming increasingly more vulnerable to storm surges under a changing climate. Tide gauges can be used to monitor alongshore variations of a storm surge, but not cross-shelf features. In this study we combine Jason-2 satellite measurements with tide-gauge data to study the storm surge caused by Hurricane Igor off Newfoundland. Satellite observations reveal a storm surge of 1 m in the early morning of September 22, 2010 (UTC) after the passage of the storm, consistent with the tide-gauge measurements. The post-storm sea level variations at St. John's and Argentia are associated with free equatorward-propagating continental shelf waves (with a phase speed of ~10 m/s and a cross-shelf decaying scale of ~100 km). The study clearly shows the utility of satellite altimetry in observing and understanding storm surges, complementing tide-gauge observations for the analysis of storm surge characteristics and for the validation and improvement of storm surge models.