Estimation of Wind Fields for Coastal Modeling

by Edward F. Thompson, U.S. Army Engr. Waterways Expt. Sta., Vicksburg, United States,
Zeki Demirbilek, U.S. Army Engr. Waterways Expt. Sta., Vicksburg, United States,



Document Type: Proceeding Paper

Part of: Estuarine and Coastal Modeling

Abstract:

Wind is an essential driving force for waves, circulation, and storm surge in coastal and estuarine areas. As with other horizontally 2-dimensional models, Corps of Engineers' (CE) numerical models for wind wave growth, circulation, and storm surge require spatial wind field information as an input. The input is usually a time-varying sequence of wind field or quasi-steady snapshots of isobars. The accuracy of results from these models is closely related to accuracy of the driving winds. The objective of this paper is to review present CE techniques for generating numerical wind fields due to both tropical and extratropical storm events. Models include the Standard Project Hurricane (SPH) and numerical models of the parameterized Planetary Boundary Layer (PBL) for both tropical and extratropical storms. The PBL models came to the CE through the Wave Information Studies (WIS) hindcasting program which generates oceanic scale surface wind fields from atmospheric pressure data. Both PBL models have been used in WIS and in CE storm surge and wave project studies.

Subject Headings: Numerical models | Wind engineering | Storm surges | Hurricanes, typhoons, and cyclones | Ocean waves | Mathematical models | Wind waves

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