Comparison and analysis of Envisat ASAR ocean wave spectra with buoy data in the northern Pacific Ocean

The validation and assessment of Envisat advanced synthetic aperture radar (ASAR) ocean wave spectra products are important to their application in ocean wave numerical predictions. Six-year ASAR wave spectra data are compared with one-dimensional (1D) wave spectra of 55 co-located moored buoy observations in the northern Pacific Ocean. The ASAR wave spectra data are firstly quality control filtered and spatio-temporal matched with buoy data. The comparisons are then performed in terms of 1D wave spectra, significant wave height (SWH) and mean wave period (MWP) in different spatio-temporal offsets respectively. SWH comparison results show the evident dependence of SWH biases on wind speed and the ASAR SWH saturation effect. The ASAR wave spectra tend to underestimate SWH at high wind speeds and overestimate SWH at low wind speeds. MWP comparison results show that MWP has a systematic bias and therefore it should be bias-modified before used. The comparisons of 1D wave spectra show that both wave spectra agree better at low frequencies than at high frequencies, which indicates the ASAR data cannot resolve the high frequency waves.     

A background error covariance model of significant wave height employing Monte Carlo simulation

The quality of background error statistics is one of the key components for successful assimilation of observations in a numerical model.The background error covariance(BEC) of ocean waves is generally estimated under an assumption that it is stationary over a period of time and uniform over a domain.However,error statistics are in fact functions of the physical processes governing the meteorological situation and vary with the wave condition.In this paper,we simulated the BEC of the significant wave height(SWH) employing Monte Carlo methods.An interesting result is that the BEC varies consistently with the mean wave direction(MWD).In the model domain,the BEC of the SWH decreases significantly when the MWD changes abruptly.A new BEC model of the SWH based on the correlation between the BEC and MWD was then developed.A case study of regional data assimilation was performed,where the SWH observations of buoy 22001 were used to assess the SWH hindcast.The results show that the new BEC model benefits wave prediction and allows reasonable approximations of anisotropy and inhomogeneous errors.     

Analysis of Dynamic Characteristics of the 21st Century Maritime Silk Road

The 21st century Maritime Silk Road(MSR) proposed by China strongly promotes the maritime industry. In this paper, we use wind and ocean wave datasets from 1979 to 2014 to analyze the spatial and temporal distributions of the wind speed, significant wave height(SWH), mean wave direction(MWD), and mean wave period(MWP) in the MSR. The analysis results indicate that the Luzon Strait and Gulf of Aden have the most obvious seasonal variations and that the central Indian Ocean is relatively stable. We analyzed the distributions of the maximum wind speed and SWH in the MSR over this 36-year period. The results show that the distribution of the monthly average frequency for SWH exceeds 4 m(huge waves) and that of the corresponding wind speed exceeds 13.9 ms~(-1)(high wind speed). The occurrence frequencies of huge waves and high winds in regions east of the Gulf of Aden are as high as 56% and 80%, respectively. We also assessed the wave and wind energies in different seasons. Based on our analyses, we propose a risk factor(RF) for determining navigation safety levels, based on the wind speed and SWH. We determine the spatial and temporal RF distributions for different seasons and analyze the corresponding impact on four major sea routes. Finally, we determine the spatial distribution of tropical cyclones from 2000 to 2015 and analyze the corresponding impact on the four sea routes. The analysis of the dynamic characteristics of the MSR provides references for ship navigation as well as ocean engineering.     

A joint method to retrieve directional ocean wave spectra from SAR and wave spectrometer data

This paper proposes a joint method to simultaneously retrieve wave spectra at dif ferent scales from spaceborne Synthetic Aperture Radar(SAR) and wave spectrometer data. The method combines the output from the two dif ferent sensors to overcome retrieval limitations that occur in some sea states. The wave spectrometer sensitivity coeffi cient is estimated using an ef fective signifi cant wave height(SWH), which is an average of SAR-derived and wave spectrometer-derived SWH. This averaging extends the area of the sea surface sampled by the nadir beam of the wave spectrometer to improve the accuracy of the estimated sensitivity coeffi cient in inhomogeneous sea states. Wave spectra are then retrieved from SAR data using wave spectrometer-derived spectra as fi rst guess spectra to complement the short waves lost in SAR data retrieval. In addition, the problem of 180° ambiguity in retrieved spectra is overcome using SAR imaginary cross spectra. Simulated data were used to validate the joint method. The simulations demonstrated that retrieved wave parameters, including SWH, peak wave length(PWL), and peak wave direction(PWD), agree well with reference parameters. Collocated data from ENVISAT advanced SAR(ASAR), the airborne wave spectrometer STORM, the PHAROS buoy, and the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasting(ECMWF) were then used to verify the proposed method. Wave parameters retrieved from STORM and two ASAR images were compared to buoy and ECMWF wave data. Most of the retrieved parameters were comparable to reference parameters. The results of this study show that the proposed joint retrieval method could be a valuable complement to traditional methods used to retrieve directional ocean wave spectra, particularly in inhomogeneous sea states.     

基于功率谱获取海浪波长波向算法的改进

提出一种针对基于海浪图像功率谱获取海浪波长和波向的改进算法。算法首先假定海浪功率谱是一个密度不均匀的薄片平面,然后寻找其重心坐标,该坐标可等效为海浪主频位置,从而能够快速准确地得到海浪波长和波向。并经过大量的实验,验证该方法能够很好地解决基于二维傅里叶变换获取海浪图像波长、波向时主频不明显和大量频率分量没用上等缺点。     

Numerical simulation and validation of ocean waves measured by an Along-Track Interferometric Synthetic Aperture Radar

A new nonlinear integral transform of ocean wave spectra into Along-Track Interferometric Synthetic Aperture Radar （ATI-SAR） image spectra is described. ATI-SAR phase image spectra are calculated for various sea states and radar configurations based on the nonlinear integral transform. The numerical simulations show that the slant range to velocity ratio （R/V）, significant wave height to ocean wavelength ratio （Hi2）, the baseline （2B） and incident angle （0） affect ATI-SAR imaging. The ATI-SAR imaging theory is validated by means of Two X-band, HH-polarized ATI-SAR phase images of ocean waves and eight C-band, HH-polarized ATI-SAR phase image spectra of ocean waves. It is shown that ATI-SAR phase image spectra are in agreement with those calculated by forward mapping in situ directional wave spectra collected simultaneously with available ATI-SAR observations. ATI-SAR spectral correlation coefficients between observed and simulated are greater than 0.6 and are not sensitive to the degree of nonlinearity. However, the ATI-SARoPhase image spectral turns towards the range direction, even if the real ocean wave direction is 30. It is also shown that the ATI-SAR imaging mechanism is significantly affected by the degree of velocity bunching nonlinearity, especially for high values of R/V and H/2.     

Trends in significant wave height and surface wind speed in the China Seas between 1988 and 2011

Wind and waves are key components of the climate system as they drive air-sea interactions and influence weather systems and atmospheric circulation. In marine environments, understanding surface wind and wave fields and their evolution over time is important for conducting safe and efficient human activities, such as navigation and engineering. This study considers long-term trends in the sea surface wind speed(WS) and significant wave height(SWH) in the China Seas over the period 1988–2011 using the Cross-Calibrated Multi-Platform(CCMP) ocean surface wind product and a 24-year hindcast wave dataset obtained from the WAVEWATCH-III(WW3) wave model forced with CCMP winds. The long-term trends in WS and SWH in the China Seas are analyzed over the past 24 years to provide a reference point from which to assess future climate change and offshore wind and wave energy resource development in the region. Results demonstrate that over the period 1988–2011 in the China Seas: 1) WS and SWH showed a significant increasing trend of 3.38 cm s~(-1)yr~(-1) and 1.52 cm yr~(-1), respectively; 2) there were notable regional differences in the long-term trends of WS and SWH; 3) areas with strong increasing trends were located mainly in the middle of the Tsushima Strait, the northern and southern areas of the Taiwan Strait, and in nearshore regions of the northern South China Sea; and 4) the long-term trend in WS was closely associated with El Ni?o and a significant increase in the occurrence of gale force winds in the region.     

两种海浪模式对一次台风浪过程的模拟分析

以CCMP（Cross—Calibrated,Multi—Platfoml）风场为驱动场,分别驱动目前国际先进的第3代海浪模式ww3（WAVEWATCH—III）、SWAN（Simulating WAves Nearshore）,对2010年9月发生在东中国海的台风“圆规”所致的台风浪进行数值模拟,就台风浪的特征进行分析,并对比分析两个海浪模式的模拟效果。结果表明：1）以CCMP风场分别驱动WW3、SWAN海浪模式,可以较好地模拟发生在东中国海的台风浪,风向与波向保持了大体一致,波高与风速的分布特征保持了很好的一致性;2）综合相关系数、偏差、均方根误差、平均绝对误差来看,两个模式模拟的有效波高（SWH—Significant Wdve Height）都具有较高精度,SWAN模拟的SWH略低于观测值,WW3模拟的SWH与观测值更为接近;3）台风浪可给琉球群岛海域带来5m左右的大浪,台风浪进入东海后,波高、风速都有一定程度的增加,当台风沿西北路径穿越朝鲜半岛时,受到半岛地形的巨大影响,风速和波高都明显降低。     

Interaction of Waves, Surface Currents, and Turbulence： the Application of Surface-Following Coordinate Systems

Surface waves comprise an important aspect of the interaction between the atmosphere and the ocean, so a dynamically consistent framework for modelling atmosphere-ocean interaction must take account of surface waves, either implicitly or explicitly. In order to calculate the effect of wind forcing on waves and currents, and vice versa, it is necessary to employ a consistent formula- tion of the energy and momentum balance within the airflow, wave field, and water column. It is very advantageous to apply sur- face-following coordinate systems, whereby the steep gradients in mean flow properties near the air-water interface in the cross-interface direction may be resolved over distances which are much smaller than the height of the waves themselves. We may account for the waves explicitly by employing a numerical spectral wave model, and applying a suitable theory of wave–mean flow interaction. If the mean flow is small compared with the wave phase speed, perturbation expansions of the hydrodynamic equations in a Lagrangian or generalized Lagrangian mean framework are useful: for stronger flows, such as for wind blowing over waves, the presence of critical levels where the mean flow velocity is equal to the wave phase speed necessitates the application of more general types of surface-following coordinate system. The interaction of the flow of air and water and associated differences in temperature and the concentration of various substances (such as gas species) gives rise to a complex boundary-layer structure at a wide range of vertical scales, from the sub-millimetre scales of gaseous diffusion, to several tens of metres for the turbulent Ekman layer. The bal- ance of momentum, heat, and mass is also affected significantly by breaking waves, which act to increase the effective area of the surface for mass transfer, and increase turbulent diffusive fluxes via the conversion of wave energy to turbulent kinetic energy.     

A new modulation transfer function for ocean wave spectra retrieval from X-band marine radar imagery

When imaging ocean surface waves by X-band marine radar,the radar backscatter from the sea surface is modulated by the long surface gravity waves. The modulation transfer function(MTF) comprises tilt,hydrodynamic,and shadowing modulations. A conventional linear MTF was derived using HH-polarized radar observations under conditions of deep water. In this study,we propose a new quadratic polynomial MTF based on VV-polarized radar measurements taken from heterogeneous nearshore wave fields. This new MTF is obtained using a radar-observed image spectrum and in situ buoy-measured wave frequency spectrum. We validate the MTF by comparing peak and mean wave periods retrieved from X-band marine radar image sequences with those measured by the buoy. It is shown that the retrieval accuracies of peak and mean wave periods of the new MTF are better than the conventional MTF. The results also show that the bias and root mean square errors of the peak and mean wave periods of the new MTF are 0.05 and 0.88 s,and 0.32 and 0.53 s,respectively,while those of the conventional MTF are 0.61 and 0.98 s,and 1.39 and 1.48 s,respectively. Moreover,it is also shown that the retrieval results are insensitive to the coefficients in the proposed MTF.     

Parameterized first-guess spectrum method for retrieving directional spectrum of swell-dominated waves and huge waves from SAR images

A method to retrieve ocean wave spectra from SAR images, named Parameterized First-guess Spectrum Method (PFSM), was proposed after interpretation of the theory to ocean wave imaging and analysis of the drawbacks of the retrieving model generally used. In this method, with additional information and satellite parameters, the separating wave-number is first calculated to determine the maximum wave-number beyond which the linear relation can be used. The separating wave-number can be calculated using the additional information on wind velocity and parameters of SAR satellite. And then the SAR spectrum can be divided into SAR spectrum of wind wave and of swell according to the result of separating wave-number. The portion of SAR spectrum generated by wind wave, is used to search for the most suitable parameters of ocean wind wave spectrum, including propagation direction of ocean wave, phase speed of dominating wave and the angle spreading coefficient. The swell spectrum is acquired by directly inversing the linear relation of ocean wave spectrum to SAR spectrum given the portion of SAR spectrum generated by swell. We used the proposed method to retrieve the ocean wave spectrum from ERS-SAR data from the South China Sea and compared the result with altimeter data. The agreement indicates that the PFSM is reliable.     

A New Multigrid 3D-VAR Optimization Method for Bottom Friction Using HF Radar Current Observation

This paper proposes a new method for data assimilation of the surface radial current observed by High Frequency ground wave radar and optimization of the bottom friction coefficient. In this method, the shallow water wave equation is introduced into the cost function of the multigrid three-dimensional variation data assimilation method as the weak constraint term, the surface current and the bottom friction coefficient are defined as the analytical variables, and the high spatiotemporal resolution surface radial flow observed by the high-frequency ground wave radar is used to optimize the surface current and bottom friction coefficient. This method can effectively consider the spatiotemporal correlation of radar data and extract multiscale information from surface radial flow data from long waves to short waves. Introducing the shallow water wave equation into the cost function as a weak constraint condition can adjust both the momentum and mass fields simultaneously to obtain more reasonable analysis information. The optimized bottom friction coefficient is introduced into the regional ocean numerical model to carry out numerical experiments. The test results show that the bottom friction coefficient obtained by this method can effectively improve the accuracy of the numerical simulation of sea surface height in the offshore area and reduce the simulation error.     

Long-term variation of storm surge-associated waves in the Bohai Sea

When investigating the long-term variation of wave characteristics as associated with storm surges in the Bohai Sea, the Simulating Waves Nearshore(SWAN) model and ADvanced CIRCulation(ADCIRC) model were coupled to simulate 32 storm surges between 1985 and 2014. This simulation was validated by reproducing three actual wave processes, showing that the simulated significant wave height(SWH) and mean wave period agreed well with the actual measurements. In addition, the long-term variations in SWH, patterns in SWH extremes along the Bohai Sea coast, the 100-year return period SWH extreme distribution, and waves conditional probability distribution were calculated and analyzed. We find that the trend of SWH extremes in most of the coastal stations was negative, among which the largest trend was-0.03 m/a in the western part of Liaodong Bay. From the 100-year return period of the SWH distribution calculated in the Gumbel method, we find that the SWH extremes associated with storm surges decreased gradually from the center of the Bohai Sea to the coast. In addition, the joint probability of wave and surge for the entire Bohai Sea in 100-year return period was determined by the Gumbel logistic method. We therefore, assuming a minimum surge of one meter across the entire Bohai Sea, obtained the spatial SWH distribution. The conclusions of this study are significant for offshore and coastal engineering design.     

Ocean wave diffraction in near-shore regions observed by Synthetic Aperture Radar

Observation and analysis of ocean wave diffraction in near-shore and near-island region was performed with Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) data, using an optimized retrieval method named parameterized first-guess spectrum retrieval method. The results retrieved from ERS-SAR and ENVISAT-ASAR images showed that, in the region sheltered by land jut, the energy of long waves is reduced by 10%-20% and that the propagation direction of long waves is changed due to the effect of topography. In the shadow zone behind the island, ocean wave can propagate along the seashore instead of perpendicular to the coastline, as shown by SAR images.     

Underwater topography detection of Taiwan Shoal with SAR images

Under suitable conditions of tidal current and wind, underwater topography can be detected by synthetic aperture radar (SAR) indirectly. Underwater topography SAR imaging includes three physical processes: radar ocean surface backscattering, the modulation of sea surface short wave spectrum by the variations in sea surface currents, and the modulation of sea surface currents by the underwater topography. The first process is described usually by Bragg scattering theory because the incident angle of SAR is always between 20°–70°. The second process is described by the action balance equation. The third process is described by an ocean hydrodynamic model. Based on the SAR imaging mechanism for underwater topography, an underwater topography SAR detection model and a simplified method for its calculation are introduced. In the detection model, a two-dimensional hydrodynamic model — the shallow water model is used to describe the motion of tidal current. Due to the difficulty of determining the expression of SAR backscattering cross section in which some terms can not be determined, the backscattering cross section of SAR image used in the underwater topography SAR detection is pro-processed by the simulated SAR image of the coarse-grid water depth to simplify the calculation. Taiwan Shoal, located at the southwest outlet of Taiwan Strait, is selected as an evaluation area for this technique due to the occurrence of hundreds of sand waves. The underwater topography of Taiwan Shoal was detected by two scenes of ERS-2 SAR images which were acquired on 9 January 2000 and 6 June 2004. The detection results are compared with in situ measured water depths for three profiles. The average absolute and relative errors of the best detection result are 2.23 m and 7.5 %, respectively. These show that the detection model and the simplified method introduced in the paper is feasible.     

Elimination of the impact of vessels on ocean wave height inversion with X-band wave monitoring radar

Directional wave spectra and integrated wave parameters can be derived from X-band radar sea surface images.A vessel on the sea surface has a significant influence on wave parameter inversions that can be seen as intensive backscatter speckles in X-band wave monitoring radar sea surface images.A novel algorithm to eliminate the interference of vessels in ocean wave height inversions from X-band wave monitoring radar is proposed.This algorithm is based on the characteristics of the interference.The principal components(PCs) of a sea surface image sequence are extracted using empirical orthogonal function(EOF)analysis.The standard deviation of the PCs is then used to identify vessel interference within the image sequence.To mitigate the interference,a suppression method based on a frequency domain geometric model is applied.The algorithm framework has been applied to OSMAR-X,a wave monitoring system developed by Wuhan University,based on nautical X-band radar.Several sea surface images captured on vessels by OSMAR-X are processed using the method proposed in this paper.Inversion schemes are validated by comparisons with data from in situ wave buoys.The root-mean-square error between the significant wave heights(SWH) retrieved from original interference radar images and those measured by the buoy is reduced by 0.25 m.The determinations of surface gravity wave parameters,in particular SWH,confirm the applicability of the proposed method.     

Dynamic response analysis of a floating mooring system

An innovative floating mooring system with two or more independent floating mooring platforms in the middle and one rigid platform on each side is proposed for improving efficiency and safety in shallow water. For this new system, most of collision energy is absorbed through the displacement of floating platforms. In order to illustrate the validity of the system, a series of model tests were conducted at a scale of 1:40. The coupled motion characteristics of the floating mooring platforms were discussed under regular and irregular waves, and the influences of wave direction and other characteristics on dynamic response of the system were analyzed. The results show that the mooring system is safest at 0° of wave incident angle, whereas the most dangerous mooring state occurs at 90° of wave incident angle. Motion responses increase with the increase of wave height, but are not linearly related to changes in wave height.     

Evaluating the Accuracy of ERA5 Wave Reanalysis in the Water Around China

Wave parameters, such as wave height and wave period, are important for human activities, such as navigation, ocean engineering and sediment transport, etc. In this study, wave data from six buoys around Chinese waters, are used to assess the quality of wave height and wave period in the ERA5 reanalysis of the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts. Annual hourly data with temporal resolution are used. The difference between the significant wave height(SWH) of ERA 5 and that of the buoy varies from-0.35 m to 0.30 m for the three shallow locations;for the three deep locations, the variation ranges from-0.09 m to 0.09 m. The ERA5 SWH data show positive biases, indicating an overall overestimation for all locations, except for E2 and S1 where underestimation is observed. During the tropical cyclone period, a large(about 32%) underestimation of the maximum SWH in the ERA5 data is observed. Hence, the ERA5 SWH data cannot be used for design applications without site-specific validation. The difference between the annual wave period from ERA5 and the mean wave period from the buoys varies from-1.31 s to 0.4 s. Inter-comparisons suggest that the ERA5 dataset is consistent with the annual mean SWH. However, for the average period, the performance is not good, and half of the correlation coefficients in the four points are less 50%. Overall, the deep water area simulation effect is better than that in the shallow water.     

Numerical Simulation of Typhoon Muifa(2011) Using a Coupled Ocean-Atmosphere-Wave-Sediment Transport(COAWST) Modeling System

The newly developed Coupled Ocean-Atmosphere-Wave-Sediment Transport(COAWST) Modeling System is applied to investigate typhoon-ocean interactions in this study. The COAWST modeling system represents the state-of-the-art numerical simulation technique comprising several coupled models to study coastal and environmental processes. The modeling system is applied to simulate Typhoon Muifa(2011), which strengthened from a tropical storm to a super typhoon in the Northwestern Pacific, to explore the heat fluxes exchanged among the processes simulated using the atmosphere model WRF, ocean model ROMS and wave model SWAN. These three models adopted the same horizontal grid. Three numerical experiments with different coupling configurations are performed in order to investigate the impact of typhoon-ocean interaction on the intensity and ocean response to typhoon. The simulated typhoon tracks and intensities agree with observations. Comparisons of the simulated variables with available atmospheric and oceanic observations show the good performance of using the coupled modeling system for simulating the ocean and atmosphere processes during a typhoon event. The fully coupled simulation that includes a ocean model identifies a decreased SST as a result of the typhoon-forced entrainment. Typhoon intensity and wind speed are reduced due to the decrease of the sea surface temperature when using a coupled ocean model. The experiments with ocean coupled to atmosphere also results in decreased sea surface heat flux and air temperature. The heat flux decreases by about 29% compared to the WRF only case. The reduction of the energy induced by SST decreases, resulting in weakening of the typhoon. Coupling of the waves to the atmosphere and ocean model induces a slight increase of SST in the typhoon center area with the ocean-atmosphere interaction increased as a result of wave feedback to atmosphere.     

Wave Pressure Acting on V-Shaped Floating Breakwater in Random Seas

Wave pressure on the wet surface of a V-shaped floating breakwater in random seas is investigated. Considering the diffraction effect, the unit velocity potential caused by the single regular waves around the breakwater is solved using the finite-depth Green function and boundary element method, in which the Green function is solved by integral method. The Response-Amplitude Operator(RAO) of wave pressure is acquired according to the Longuet-Higgins' wave model and the linear Bernoulli equation. Furthermore, the wave pressure's response spectrum is calculated according to the wave spectrum by discretizing the frequency domain. The wave pressure's characteristic value corresponding to certain cumulative probability is determined according to the Rayleigh distribution of wave heights. The numerical results and field test results are compared, which indicates that the wave pressure calculated in random seas agrees with that of field measurements. It is found that the bigger angle between legs will cause the bigger pressure response, while the increase in leg length does not influence the pressure significantly. The pressure at the side of head sea is larger than that of back waves. When the incident wave angle changes from 0? to 90?, the pressure at the side of back waves decreases clearly, while at the side of head sea, the situation is more complicated and there seems no obvious tendency. The concentration of wave energy around low frequency(long wavelength) will induce bigger wave pressure, and more attention should be paid to this situation for the structure safety.