Sensitivity Study of a Coastal Wave Model for Prediction of Ocean Waves over Indian Ocean Region

Abstract

In this article, sensitivity of the SWAN coastal wave model towards wind inputs and physics options has been performed over the Indian Ocean by forcing the model with analyzed GDAS winds. Wind forcing simulations show that the model is sensitive to the wind errors. The simulations obtained using different physics options have been compared with altimeter and in situ data. The study indicates that the model with Janssen physics options simulates the significant wave height with a fairly high degree of accuracy. It has also been observed that the simulations are not too sensitive to the choice of propagation schemes.

Keywords:

• SWAN model
• parameterization schemes
• significant wave height and altimeter data

Acknowledgements

The work greatly benefited from the fruitful discussions with the group director, Atmospheric & Oceanic Sciences Group. The authors are also grateful to Dr. Sujit Basu for helpful discussions during the preparation of the manuscript.