Research of the Influential Factors on the Simulation of Storm Surge in the Bohai Sea

Abstract

A hindcast of typical extratropical storm surge occurring in the Bohai Sea in Oct. 2003 is performed using a three-dimensional storm surge model system based on Finite-Volume Coastal Ocean Model (FVCOM). The surface winds are obtained from the WRF data set. Some preliminary sensitivity studies of the influential factors affecting the storm surge simulation in the Bohai Sea are conducted with the high revolution numerical model of storm surge. The factors of tide-surge interaction, the wind stress, the water depth, the bottom drag coefficient and the critical depth in the model are studied. After considering the tide-wind interaction and the severe wind, the most important influential factor affecting the storm surge in the Bohai Sea is the bottom drag coefficient. These sensitivity studies indicate that the storm surge simulations depend critically on the parameterizations. Hence additional experimental guidance is required on the bottom drag coefficient. This study is useful for the storm surge simulation in order to select the proper parameter to make possible a good conservation behavior of the storm surge model.