Comparison of Typhoon Wind Models Based on Storm Surge Heights Induced by Typhoon Maemi

Abstract

For various purposes related to storm surges, typhoon wind models have been developed and calibrated to simulate sea winds and pressures. In this study, we used two typhoon wind models in an ocean model to explore the storm surge heights, a topic rarely examined in the literature. Identical typhoon track and concentric atmospheric pressure distributions for Typhoon Maemi (0314) were applied to an empirical typhoon parametric model and the US Army Corps of Engineers (CE) wind model. The storm surge heights calculated by an ocean model, Korea Ocean Research and Development Institute - Storm surge model (KORDI-S) were compared with a total 11 of observations around the Korean Peninsula. A series of numerical experiments showed that the ocean responses (i.e., local maximum storm surge heights and peak times) were sensitive to the meteorological inputs by typhoon wind models in terms of the radius of maximum wind speed (r(max)). Both typhoon wind models, when given proper values of r(max), accurately simulated the maximum surge heights induced by Typhoon Maemi. For the temporal history of storm surges, the CE wind model gave better performance.