Coastal flooding due to synoptic scale, meso-scale and remote forcings

Abstract

Coastal flooding occurs due to storm surges generated by tropical and extra-tropical cyclones on the globe. The meteorological forcing fields for the generation of storm surges are the tangential surface wind stress on the ocean surface and the normal atmospheric pressure gradients associated with the weather systems. The large scale forcing from the cyclones is referred to as the synoptic scale and storm surge prediction from synoptic scale forcing is well developed and is reasonably satisfactory around the world. However, coastal flooding also occurs from weather systems, with forcing on a meso-scale and also from remote forcing. It is proposed here that the term “Storm surge” be used to only refer to coastal flooding from synoptic scale forcing and the terminology “Rissaga” be used for coastal flooding from meso-scale forcing. For flooding due to remote forcing, a new term “Kallakkadal” is proposed.