Abstract
Two types of 13-year-long wave hindcasting data samples in cases where the input wind conditions are taken from the MSM(Meso Scale Model)-based wind data sets provided by JMA(Japan Meteorological Agency) are compared with the measurement data for significant wave heights and wave periods at each of 18 onshore stations deployed along the entire Korean coast. One type of the hindcasting data set is individually obtained at each of the Korean coastal stations by using a backward ray tracing model(BRTM)associated with a high resolution nesting grid put on the Northwestern Pacific Ocean. The other type of wave data set on the entire region is made by SWAN(Version40.91ABC) with a medium-size space resolution grid put on the Northwestern Pacific Ocean. The SWAN-based data is also compared with the measurement data at each of 12 NOWPHAS stations situated along the Japanese Pacific coast. The following results are found: 1) at any of the Korean coastal stations, BRTM yields reasonable estimates; 2) at most stations of not only the Korean coast but also the Japanese Pacific coast, SWAN tends to give an overestimation for wave heights, perhaps due to use of a poorer space resolution grid, and tends to yield an underestimation for wave periods, possibly due to an unsatisfactory formulation of the source term such as the energy dissipation term in the SWAN.
