Publications

Rusu, L., Bernardino, M. and Guedes Soares, C. (2009), “Influence of wind modelling on the predictions of waves generated in an estuary”, Journal of Coastal Research, Issue 56, pp. 1419-1423

Estuaries are commonly characterized as coastal environments combining locally generated waves with waves that penetrate from offshore. The atmospheric model MM5 and the spectral phase averaging wave model SWAN were used to determine the generated wave field in the Tagus estuary, in front of Lisbon. In order to evaluate the influence of the wind fields on the generated wave field, several experiments have been performed using both uniform and variable wind forcing. Statistical analysis of a ten-year period of wind measurements (1995-2005), at a station located in Lisbon in the neighborhood of the target area, allowed to establish the most representative wind conditions. Two sets of variable wind fields with different resolutions were provided by the MM5 and REMO atmospheric models. The present work describes the impact of the wind field spatial resolutions on the wave model results, and, as a consequence, the need of a careful attention regarding the wind data that are used in wave modeling.

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