Storm Wave Characteristics during Typhoons Maysak and Haishen on the East and South Coasts of Korea

Abstract

Seo, S.-C.; Kim, H.-J.; Hwang, T., and Lee, W.-D., 2023. Storm wave characteristics during Typhoons Maysak and Haishen on the east and south coasts of Korea. Journal of Coastal Research, 39(1), 129–142. Charlotte (North Carolina), ISSN 0749-0208. Typhoons Maysak and Haishen, the ninth and tenth typhoons of 2020, ravaged the Korean Peninsula within an interval of only 4 to 5 days. In the vicinity of the peninsula, these two typhoons exhibited unusual northward movement paths as they made landfall on the south coast of Korea and exited off the east coast. The storm waves caused by these typhoons damaged a number of structures along the east and south coasts, particularly by overtopping and flooding. In this study, storm waves were estimated by applying the wind fields caused by Typhoons Maysak and Haishen in the third-generation wave model Simulation WAves Nearshore (SWAN), and results were verified through a comparison with wave observation data. The storm wave characteristics were analyzed mainly based on the east and south coasts, which were damaged by high waves that accompanied the typhoons. In addition, the deep-water design wave specifications around the Korean Peninsula revised in 2019 were compared with the storm waves that occurred during Typhoons Maysak and Haishen as calculated by the SWAN model. Consequently, during the onslaughts of Typhoons Maysak and Haishen, storm waves corresponding to more than 90% of the deep-water design wave heights for the 50 year return period were estimated at grid points on the East Sea and Ulleungdo Island of Korea.