Assimilation of Wave Data for Simulations of Typhoon Waves in the South China Sea

Abstract

A sequential assimilation method is applied to improve the accuracy of wave simulations in the South China Sea. Typhoon Nesat was chosen to be used for the numerical experiment. The assimilation is based on Optimal Interpolation(OI) which can minimize the Root-Mean-Square error in the analysis. Using the method of OI, wave height and mean period data observed by three buoys have been assimilated into the third generation ocean wave model(SWAN). The results show that the assimilation can correct the difference between the wave model and observations, and the result of significant wave height is superior to that of mean period.