WAVEWATCH-III source terms evaluation for optimizing hurricane wave modeling: A case study of Hurricane Ivan

Abstract

Simulating hurricane-generated waves is a challenging task due to rapidly fluctuating wind speed and direction, simultaneous presence of swells propagating out of the previous location of the hurricane and following/opposing waves on either side of the hurricane track, and dissipation in wind speed radially from the center of the hurricane. Bulk wave parameters have been investigated using the source term packages ST3, ST4 and ST6 implemented in the WAVEWATCH-III model to determine the most appropriate formulation for simulating hurricane-generated waves in the Gulf of Mexico. Based on the comparisons between model results and in situ observations during the passage of Hurricane Ivan (2004), it is shown that ST3 is not as successful as other formulations for hurricane wave modeling. Calibrated ST6 variant, T12, has shown to be the best formulation for simulating bulk wave parameters at points within the range of hurricane wind forcing; however, for the area beyond, and also during fair weather conditions, calibrated ST4 formulation, T471-Ex4, is recommended. Although T471-EX4 and T12 packages outperformed other cases, they overestimated waves propagating in the oblique and opposing wind. Dependence of ST6 parameter a0 on wind and wave direction is examined to improve the model performance.