Abstract
Abstract. The present work describes the interaction between waves and currents utilizing a coupled ADCIRC+SWAN model for the very severe cyclonic storm Hudhud, which made landfall at Visakhapatnam on the east coast of India in October 2014. Model-computed wave and surge heights were validated with measurements near the landfall point. The Holland model reproduced the maximum wind speed of ≈ 54 m s−1 with the minimum pressure of 950 hPa. The modelled maximum surge of 1.2 m matches with the maximum surge of 1.4 m measured off Visakhapatnam. The two-way coupling with SWAN showed that waves contributed ≈ 0.25 m to the total water level during the Hudhud event. At the landfall point near Visakhapatnam, the East India Coastal Current speed increased from 0.5 to 1.8 m s−1 for a short duration ( ≈ 6 h) with net flow towards the south, and thereafter reversed towards the north. An increase of ≈ 0.2 m in Hs was observed with the inclusion of model currents. It was also observed that when waves travelled perpendicular to the coast after crossing the shelf area, with current towards the southwest, wave heights were reduced due to wave–current interaction; however, an increase in wave height was observed on the left side of the track, when waves and currents opposed each other.
Highlights
In coastal and shelf regions, winds and waves interact with the prevailing current system and several mutual non-linear interactions occur
A coupled ADCIRC+SWAN modelling system has been used to simulate the changes that occurred in the ocean surface dynamics during the passage of the very severe cyclonic storm Hudhud that made landfall near Visakhapatnam, located on the east coast of India (ECI)
The landfall of Hudhud event occurred during the spring high tide and the tide gauge observation off Visakhapatnam recorded a maximum surge of 1.4 m, which matched reasonably well with the modelled surge (1.2 m)
Summary
In coastal and shelf regions, winds and waves interact with the prevailing current system and several mutual non-linear interactions occur. ADCIRC+SWAN (ADvanced CIRCulation+Simulating WAves Nearshore) is a coupled model that works on an unstructured mesh and allows for interaction between storm surges, waves and currents. One can find very few studies reported using a coupled model (ADCIRC with SWAN) for the Indian seas (Bhaskaran et al, 2013; Murty et al, 2014, 2016; Poulose et al, 2017) for extreme weather events These studies examined the performance of coupled models and role of improved wind forcing on waves and hydrodynamic conditions. (i) impact of wave–current interaction on water level, (ii) impact of wave–current interaction on waves and (iii) impact of wave–current interaction on currents This involves simulation of winds, tides, storm surges, currents and waves in the study domain during this extreme weather event using the coupled ADCIRC and SWAN models. No measured current data were available for verification of the model-computed currents
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