On the consistency of the drag between air and water in meteorological, hydrodynamic and wave models

Abstract

For the design, assessment and flood control of water defences, hydraulic loads in terms of water levels and wave conditions are required and often obtained from numerical models. For these hydraulic loads to be reliable, accurate atmospheric forcing is required. Waves and surges are typically forced by surface stress. However, in most cases, the input for these models consists of 10-m wind velocities that are internally converted to surface stress by applying a particular drag relation. This procedure generally leads to inconsistencies, since the hydrodynamic, wave and atmospheric models often apply different drag relations. By means of a case study, we explored the consequences of this inconsistency in the drag formulation for a North Sea storm wave and surge hindcast. This was done by forcing the hydrodynamic and wave models using both the 10-m wind velocity and the surface stress fields computed by the atmospheric model. Our study results show significant differences between the wave parameter values and water levels computed with surface stress input and 10-m wind velocity input. Our goal is not to assess different drag parameterizations but to raise awareness for this issue and to plea for the use of a consistent drag relation in meteorological and hydrodynamic/wave models. The consistent use of one drag formulation facilitates the identification of problems and the eventual improvement of the drag formulation. Furthermore, we suggest using the so-called pseudo-wind, which is a translation of the surface stress to the 10-m wind speed using a reference drag relation.