Using remotely sensed data to modify wind forcing in operational storm surge forecasting

Storm surges are abnormal coastal sea level events caused by meteorological conditions such as tropical cyclones. They have the potential to cause widespread loss of life and financial damage and have done so on many occasions in the past. Accurate and timely forecasts are necessary to help mitigate the risks posed by these events. Operational forecasting models use discretisations of the governing equations for fluid flow to model the sea surface, which is then forced by surface stresses derived from a model wind and pressure fields. The wind fields are typically idealised and generated parametrically. In this study, wind field datasets derived from remotely sensed data are used to modify the model parametric wind forcing and investigate potential improvement to operational forecasting. We examine two methods for using analysis wind fields derived from remotely sensed observations of three hurricanes. Our first method simply replaces the parametric wind fields with its corresponding analysis wind field for a period of time. Our second method does this also but takes it further by attempting to use some of the information present in the analysis wind field to estimate future wind fields. We find that our methods do yield some forecast improvement, most notably for our second method where we get improvements of up to 0.29 m on average. Importantly, the spatial structure of the surge is changed in some places such that locations that were previously forecast small surges had their water levels increased. These results were validated by tide gauge data.     

The 14th international workshop on wave hindcasting and forecasting and the 5th coastal hazards symposium

Following the 14th International Workshop on Wave Hindcasting and Forecasting and 5th Coastal Hazards Symposium in November 2014 in Key West, Florida, a topical collection has appeared in recent issues of Ocean Dynamics. Here, we give a brief overview of the 16 papers published in this topical collection as well as an overview of the widening scope of the conference in recent years. A general trend in the field has been towards closer integration between the wave and ocean modelling communities. This is also seen in this topical collection, with several papers exploring the interaction between surface waves and mixed layer dynamics and sea ice.     

Detailed streamflow data for understanding hydrologic responses in the Logan River Observatory

The Logan River watershed, located in Northern Utah, USA, consists of a relatively pristine, mountainous area that drains to a lower elevation, valley area influenced by both urban development and agriculture. The Logan River Observatory has been collecting aquatic (streamflow and water quality) and climate data throughout the Logan River watershed since 2014. While streamflow measurements are commonly made at the outlets of research watersheds, the Logan River watershed consists of diverse hydrologic, topographic, and geologic settings that require a detailed understanding of streamflow variability over time at many locations. Here, we illustrate: (a) the importance of collecting streamflow time series throughout complex watersheds, and (b) how simple flow balances can provide much needed hydrologic insight into the locations and timing of gains and losses over reaches to guide future investigations.     

“Grey swan” storm surges pose a greater coastal flood hazard than climate change

Ocean Dynamics - In this paper, we show that over the next few decades, the natural variability of mid-latitude storm systems is likely to be a more important driver of coastal extreme sea levels...