Validation of a thirty year wave hindcast using the Climate Forecast System Reanalysis winds

Abstract

A thirty one year wave hindcast (1979–2009) using NCEP’s latest high resolution Climate Forecast System Reanalysis (CFSR) wind and ice database has been developed and is presented here. The hindcast has been generated using the third generation wind wave model WAVEWATCH III® with a mosaic of 16 two-way nested grids. The resolution of the grids ranged from 1/2° to 1/15°. Validation results for bulk significant wave height Hs and 10m (above Mean Sea Level) wind speeds U10 have been presented using both altimeter records and NDBC buoys. In general the database does a good job of representing the wave climate. At most buoys there is excellent agreement between model and data out to the 99.9th percentile. The agreement at coastal buoys is not as good as the offshore buoys due to unresolved coastal features (topographic/bathymetric) as well as issues related to interpolating wind fields at the land-sea margins. There are some concerns about the wave climate in the Southern Hemisphere due to the over prediction of winds (early part of the database) as well as the lack of wave blocking due to icebergs (in the model).