Abstract
Based on a 3 to 23-year comparison between hindcast and measured wave data at 20 widely separated stations in the Seto Inland Sea, the applicability of a long term wave hindcast system is investigated. The system consists of data sets of onehourly sea surface wind distribution made from ECMWF analysis/reanalysis wind data in the open sea and measurements at many stations in the Inland Sea, and a backward ray tracing model on a grid with high spatial resolution. One major finding is that the system yields reasonable estimates of the time variations of waves and the resulting climatic properties both at stations exposed to open sea waves and inland sea waves, although a consistent discrepancy appears in the comparison of the inland sea wave periods because of the poor quality of the measurements.
