Abstract
The present paper examines the applicability of the third-generation wave models WAM and WAVEWATCH III (WW3) to the estimation of design waves and to the prediction of ocean waves, by verifying the reproducibility of waves derived from those models. Wind wave and swell are simulated by two wave models for 6 abnormal weather cases (ex. typhoon, low pressure and winter storm waves) and typical seasonal cases in summer and winter. The accuracy of the wave simulations by the wave models in a particular focus on the swell are revealed by comparison between the wave simulations and the observations of the GPS buoy and the seabed gauges mounted in the nearshore coast of Japan, in NOWPHAS system. The results show that in most abnormal weather cases the peak wave heights and wave periods for WW3 show better agreement with the observations than those for WAM, and in several cases the wave heights by the models little overestimate the observed ones. Causes of the overestimation should be clarified to improve the prediction accuracy of the models.
