Abstract
A wave hindcasting system(MSM/SWAN), which consists of hourly sea wind distributions made using MSM(Meso Scale Model) and the third generation wave model SWAN is applied on the Northwestern Pacific Ocean with a space resolution of 0.1 degree for 10 storms such as 4 low depressions and 6 typhoons and additional 3 typhoons. Comparison between hindcasts and measurements for the time variations of (significant) wave height H and wave period T and the maximum wave height Hmax is conducted at each of 12 GPS buoy stations deployed along 10 to 20 km offshore areas from the northern area to the western area of the Japanese Pacific coasts. The main findings are summarized as follows: (1)For wave height, hindcasts are in reasonable agreement with measurements and for wave period, a similar result is obtained to a lesser degree. (2)In a detailed comparison, hindcasts yield a tendency of overestimation for wave heights during a typhoon, because hindcasts indicate an earlier growth and a slower decay than measurements. (3)Error statistics suggest relatively close agreement between hindcasts and measurements at northern stations during low depressions and hindcasts slightly greater than measurements at western stations during typhoons. (4)For the maximum wave height during a storm at any of the buoy stations, hindcast is in overall agreement with measurement, in cases where absolute relative error is less than 20 %. (5) The authors' second generation model YH3 yields a similar level agreement with SWAN for the evaluation of Hmax under the same conditions for winds and computation domain.
