WAVEWATCH III® 30-year Hindcast Phase 1

Summary

A 30-year wave climatology has been generated with the NOAA WAVEWATCH III® using the Tolman and Chalikov (1996) source term package, 17 regular lat-lon grids, and the NCEP Climate Forecast System Reanalysis and Reforecast (CFSRR) homogeneous dataset of hourly high-resolution winds. The time period covers from 1979 through 2009.

Data Set Access and Validation

• Phase 1 Data*
• Phase 1 Validation

* Important Note: The Phase-1 Hindcast data set was recently moved from our FTP server to our web server. Please update your bookmarks and links as needed with the new location.

Some browsers (Firefox, Chrome) may try to display the contents of a GRiB file in the browser window instead of downloading it. If that happens, right-click on the GRiB file link and select "Save Link As..." to download the file.

Model Setup

• Propagation scheme: ULTIMATE QUICKEST (Leonard, 1979, 1991; Davis and More, 1982) propagation scheme (UQ) with averaging technique for Garden Sprinkler alleviation (Tolman, 2002) (PR3)
• Linear input: Cavaleri and Malanotte-Rizzoli with filter (LN1)
• Nonlinear interactions: Discrete interaction approximation (NL1)
• Bottom friction: JONSWAP bottom friction formulation (BT1) with no bottom scattering (BS0)
• Depth induced breaking: Battjes-Janssen (DB1)
• Use Miche-style shallow water limiter in equation for maximum wave energy (MLIM)

The model was run with the Tolman and Chalikov (1996) source term package (ST2), capped friction velocity from Tolman and Chalikov input (FLX3), stability correction for ST2 enabled (STAB2).

Model Grid Descriptions

The wave model suite consists of global and regional nested grids, developed using ETOPO-1 bathymetry (Amante and Eakins, 2009) together with v1.10 of the Global Self-Consistent Hierarchical High Resolution Shoreline (GSHHS) Database. The higher-resolution grids have been masked to improve model efficiency, and only provide data near shore.See Chawla and Tolman (2007,2008) for details on the software used for developing these grids.

Note: Model was run using Arctic Ocean (ao_30m), Mid-Latitudes (mid_30m), and Antarctic Ocean (ac_30m) grids, but results are interpolated onto the Global (glo_30m) grid and not given on the other 30 min grids.

Name (click for map)	ID	Nx	Ny	dx	dy	Lon0	Lat0
Global 30 min	glo_30m	720	361	1/2	1/2	0	-90.0
Arctic Ocean 30 min	ao_30m	720	71	1/2	1/2	0	55.0
Mid-latitudes 30 min	mid_30m	720	261	1/2	1/2	0	-65.0
Antarctic Ocean 30 min	ac_30m	720	71	1/2	1/2	0	-90.0
Gulf of America and NW Atlantic 10 min	ecg_10m	301	331	1/6	1/6	260	0.0
US West Coast 10 min	wc_10m	241	151	1/6	1/6	210	25
Pacific Islands 10 min	pi_10m	511	301	1/6	1/6	130	-20
Alaskan 10 min	ak_10m	401	187	1/4	1/6	140	44
North Sea Baltic 10 min	nsb_10m	237	157	1/4	1/6	-28	42
Mediterranean 10 min	med_10m	301	109	1/6	1/6	-7	30
North West Indian Ocean 10 min	nwio_10m	241	307	1/6	1/6	30	-20
Australia 10 min	oz_10m	361	301	1/6	1/6	105	-50
Gulf of America and NW Atlantic 4 min	ecg_4m	586	481	1/15	1/15	261	15
US West Coast 4 min	wc_4m	736	526	1/15	1/15	195	15
Alaskan 4 min	ak_4m	548	391	2/15	1/15	165	48
North Sea Baltic 4 min	nsb_4m	443	391	2/15	1/15	-28	42
Australia 4 min	oz_4m	901	751	1/15	1/15	105	-50

Model input

• High resolution global winds at 10m height from the NCEP Climate Forecast System Reanalysis (CFSR) - a coupled reanalysis of the atmospheric, oceanic, sea-ice, and land data - were used for this study. The wind fields used are 1/2 degree resolution at 1 hour intervals.
• Hourly air-sea temperature difference with 1/2 degree spatial resolution, also from the CFSRR.
• Ice concentrations are obtained from passive microwave sea ice concentration from the SMMR and SSMI, using the NASA Team algorithm through 2/29/2000 and the NCEP high resolution algorithm based on NASA Team2 from 3/1/2000 onwards. The ice fields used are daily with 1/2 degree resolution.

Model output

• Requested WW3 output field parameters, every 3 hours, in grib2 format
  .wind. = U-component of input wind, V-component of input wind (m/s). The vector described by these components shows the direction in which the wind blows (oceanographic convention)
  .hs. = significant height of combined wind waves and swell (m)
  .tp. = primary wave mean period (s)
  .dp. = primary wave direction (degrees true, i.e. 0 deg => coming from North; 90 deg => coming from East)
• Point output
  Hourly spectra, bulk parameters, and partition data is saved at over 2000 points (buoy locations and virtual locations).

Note: The original model results were lost due to a computer malfunction. Here we present what was able to be recovered from storage. There are no partition data for any of the time period. Grib and point output is available from 1979 through 2009.

• The following directories have partial data:
  198606,
  198907, 198908, 198909,
  199001, 199002, 199003,
  199404, 199405, 199406,
  200412,
  all of 2008 and 2009

These months only have grib files (no point output). We would like to acknowledge the assistance of Dr. Stephen Grey and Dr. Chan Kwon Jeong for the recovery of the grib data.

Technical notes

• An initial look at the CFSR Reanalysis winds for wave modeling
• WAVEWATCH III^® Hindcasts with Re-analysis winds. Initial report on model setup
• 30 Year Wave Hindcasts using WAVEWATCH III^® with CFSR winds: Phase 1

Help and hints

There is a problem extracting data from the Mediterranean GRiB files, where the longitude values are incorrect. Here is an example Python script to work around the problem.