A Study on the Improvement of Wave and Storm Surge Predictions Using a Forecasting Model and Parametric Model: a Case Study on Typhoon Chaba

Abstract

High waves and storm surges due to tropical cyclones cause great damage in coastal areas; therefore, accurately predicting storm surges and high waves before a typhoon strike is crucial. Meteorological forcing is an important factor for predicting these catastrophic events. This study presents an improved methodology for determining accurate meteorological forcing. Typhoon Chaba, which caused serious damage to the south coast of South Korea in 2016, was selected as a case study. In this study, symmetric and asymmetric parametric vortex models based on the typhoon track forecasted by the Model for Prediction Across Scales (MPAS) were used to create meteorological forcing and were compared with those models based on the best track. The meteorological fields were also created by blending the meteorological field from the symmetric / asymmetric parametric vortex models based on the MPAS-forecasted typhoon track and the meteorological field generated by the forecasting model (MPAS). This meteorological forcing data was then used given to two-way coupled tide-surge-wave models: Advanced CIRCulation (ADCIRC) and Simulating Waves Nearshore (SWAN). The modeled storm surges and waves correlated well with the observations and were comparable to those predicted using the best track. Based on our analysis, we propose using the parametric model with the MPAS-forecasted track, the meteorological field from the same forecasting model, and blending them to improve storm surge and wave prediction.