Wave forecasting at the Spanish coasts

Abstract

A wave forecasting system developed by Puertos del Estado (The Spanish holding of harbours) to predict waves at the coast is run in a twice a day cycle with a forecasting horizon of 72 h. This system is driven by wind fields supplied by the Spanish Meteorological Service from the HIRLAM model. Nested within this model a set of local forecasting systems, one for each harbour, covering an area of around 25 × 25 km, has been developed. The narrowness of the Spanish continental shelf requires very high resolution grids to be applied to localised regions near the coast. This fact involves the use of modelling techniques that makes this forecasting system different from other systems implemented in other regions. This article describes the wave forecasting system and the different techniques developed at Puertos del Estado to implement it.