Effect of the surface wind stress parameterization on the storm surge modeling

Abstract

The wind stress over ocean is a crucial surface forcing in the storm surge modeling. This study investigates the effect of surface wind stress parameterizations and grid resolutions on the storm surge modeling. Three drag coefficient (C(d)) formulas at high wind speeds have been tested for the Super Typhoon Maemi (2003) using the grid resolution of 1/12 degrees, 1/60 degrees, and 1/360 degrees: (i) the linearly-increasing C(d) by Wu [Wu, J., 1982. Wind-stress coefficients over sea surface from breeze to hurricane. J. Geophys. Res. 87, 9704-9706], (ii) the fast-increasing C(d) by the WAVEWATCH III (WW3) model, and (iii) the leveling-off C(d) by the coupled wind-wave (CWW) model. Experimental results show that a higher resolution model that has a better resolution of complex topography and the coastline produces higher surge, on the average. In particular, when the grid resolution of the storm surge model is greatly improved, the CWW model with the leveling-off C(d) at high winds shows the best performance in the surge simulation, while both WW3 and Wu models with unrealistic high C(d) at high winds tend to produce an overestimated surge. (C) 2009 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.