Development of typhoon driven wave nowcasting model in Southeast China Sea

Using optimal interpolation data assimilation of observed wave spectrum around Northeast coast of Taiwan Island, the typhoon driven wave nowcasting model in Southeast China Sea is setup. The SWAN (simulating waves nearshore) model is used to calculate wave field and the input wind field is the QSCAT/NCEP (Quick Scatterometer/National Centers for Environmental Prediction) data. The two-dimensional wavelet transform is applied to analyze the X-band radar image of nearshore wave field and it reveals that the observed wave spectrum has shoaling characteristics in frequency domain. The reverse calculation approach of wave spectrum in deep water is proposed and validated with experimental tests. The two-dimensional digital low-pass filter is used to obtain the initialization wave field. Wave data during Typhoon Sinlaku is used to calibrate the data assimilation parameters and test the reverse calculation approach. Data assimilation corrects the significant wave height and the low frequency spectra energy evidently at Beishuang Station along Fujian Province coast, where the entire assimilation indexes are positive in verification moments. The nowcasting wave field shows that the present model can obtain more accurate wave predictions for coastal and ocean engineering in Southeast China Sea.