A numerical study of wave‐current interaction through surface and bottom stresses: Coastal ocean response to Hurricane Fran of 1996

Abstract

A three‐dimensional wave‐current coupled modeling system is used to examine the influence of waves on coastal currents and sea level. This coupled modeling system consists of the wave model‐WAM (Cycle 4) and the Princeton Ocean Model (POM). The results from this study show that it is important to incorporate surface wave effects into coastal storm surge and circulation models. Specifically, we find that (1) storm surge models without coupled surface waves generally under estimate not only the peak surge but also the coastal water level drop which can also cause substantial impact on the coastal environment, (2) introducing wave‐induced surface stress effect into storm surge models can significantly improve storm surge prediction, (3) incorporating wave‐induced bottom stress into the coupled wave‐current model further improves storm surge prediction, and (4) calibration of the wave module according to minimum error in significant wave height does not necessarily result in an optimum wave module in a wave‐current coupled system for current and storm surge prediction.