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Abstract
An evaluation of the effect of bottom friction, wind drag coefficient, and meteorological forcing is conducted using a tightly coupled wave and circulation model, SWAN + ADCIRC (i.e., Simulating WAves Nearshore + ADvanced CIRCulation), to hindcast the storm surge of Hurricane Rita (2005). Wind drag coefficient formulations of Powell, Zijlema, and Peng & Li are used to calculate wind stresses. Bottom friction and wind drag coefficients are systematically increased and decreased to quantify their impacts on the hindcast. Different meteorological forcing options are applied to study the effect of wind fields on storm surge development and propagation. Simulated water levels are compared with observed data collected from about 150 locations. It is evident that a lower bottom friction causes higher and faster surge propagation, and earlier arrival of inundation peak at locations far from the land fall. Drag coefficients of Powell, with or without a cap of 0.002, and Zijlema produce similar results, while that of Peng & Li slightly overpredicted the surge. Wind fields may cause overprediction or underprediction of the surge, depending on the choice of the wind model. A good agreement is found between Zijlema’s findings and this study; that simultaneously decreasing or increasing both bottom friction and wind drag essentially provides the same hindcast results.
Highlights
Storm surge due to tropical cyclones is an above-normal coastal water level caused by strong winds, atmospheric pressure differences, and wind-driven wave setup [1]
As tropical cyclones approach land, they encounter varied geographical features, such as rivers, barrier islands, levees, raised roads and railroads, and low-lying topography [1,2,3]. Some of these features amplify the storm surge, and others attenuate it through bottom friction and surface roughness
Recent occurrences of major hurricanes, such as Charley, Frances, and Ivan (2004); Katrina, and Rita (2005); Gustav and Ike (2008); and Isaac and Sandy (2012) and their large impacts call for better understanding of the sensitivity of coastal storm surges to different forcings and parameters that are needed for accurate surge predictions [4,5,6,7]
Summary
Storm surge due to tropical cyclones is an above-normal coastal water level caused by strong winds, atmospheric pressure differences, and wind-driven wave setup [1]. As tropical cyclones approach land, they encounter varied geographical features, such as rivers, barrier islands, levees, raised roads and railroads, and low-lying topography [1,2,3]. Some of these features amplify the storm surge, and others attenuate it through bottom friction and surface roughness. There are areas of storm surge modeling that can be improved, such as bathymetry and topographic data, especially accounting for erosion and sedimentation due to storm surges, waves, and winds [3]; wind field generation, especially accounting for the asymmetric nature of the storm [8,9,10,11,12]; drag coefficients that account for sea state and surface roughness [2,13]; directional bottom friction formulation [14]; and wind-sea interaction formulation [10,15,16,17]
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