Analysis of Wave Climate around Korea Based on Long-Term Hindcast and Coastal Observation Data

Abstract

Understanding long-term trends of wave climate is important to establish proper mitigation and adaptation strategies for possible coastal erosion and loss of safety in maritime structure due to climate change. In this study, a 36-year (from 1979 to 2014) wave hindcasting was carried out and detailed analysis was made to recognize long-term changes in coastal wave climate of Korea. The reanalysis wind data provided by ECMWF are applied to the simulation of wave fields over sea waters around Korea. The SWAN model was used to obtain the wave fields from the longitude 120 degrees to 150 degrees East and from the latitude 22.4 degrees to 47.6 degrees North with a grid resolution of 1/12 degrees by 1/12 degrees. Comparison of the hindcasted waves with available wave observation data shows that the simulated wave field agrees fairly well with the observation although extreme values of the significant wave height are slightly underestimated. On average, the annual average and maximum values of the significant wave height showed increasing trend along the coasts of Korea.