Group of Marine Environment > 1.3 Wave Modelling and Hindcasting > Publications

Pilar, P., Guedes Soares, C. and Carretero, J.C. (2008), “44-Year Wave Hindcast for the North East Atlantic European Coast”, Coastal Engineering, Vol. 55, pp. 861-871

This paper describes a 44 years (from 1958 to 2001) wave hindcast conducted for the North Atlantic, using a finer grid in the North East Atlantic coastal areas of Europe. The wind fields were obtained by a local area model that was applied in the areas adjacent to the European coasts, which was forced by the results of the NCEP reanalysis. While the NCEP results have a spatial distribution of 2 degrees and a time step of 6 hours the wind fields produced by the local area model have a spatial resolution of 0.5 degree and a time step of one hour, which is important for accurate descriptions of the conditions in coastal areas and in rapidly changing storms. A version of the WAM model that allowed two-way nesting was adopted and calculations were made with nested grids allowing a fine resolution in the coastal areas of Europe. This paper includes the description of the set-up of the wave model and the validation performed versus in-situ measurements so as to allow assessments of the quality of the data produced in this study.

Request a copy of this article

http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0378383908000458



For information about all CENTEC publications you can download: Download the Complete List of CENTEC Publications