Effect of Uni- and Bi-Directional Coupling of Ocean-Met Interaction on Significant Wave Height and Local Wind

Abstract

Accurate prediction of near surface wind and wave height are important for many offshore activities like fishing, boating, surfing, installation and maintenance of marine structures. The current work investigates the use of different methodologies to make accurate predictions of significant wave height and local wind. The methodology consists of coupling an atmospheric code HARMONIE and a wave model WAM. Two different kinds of coupling methodologies: unidirectional and bidirectional coupling are tested. While in Unidirectional coupling only the effects of atmosphere on ocean surface are taken into account, in bidirectional coupling the effects of ocean surface on the atmosphere are also accounted for. The predicted values of wave height and local wind at 10m above the ocean surface using both the methodologies are compared against observation data. The results show that during windy conditions, a bidirectional coupling methodology has better prediction capability.