Skip to main content

Advertisement

SpringerLink
Log in

Wind and wave height climate from two decades of altimeter records on the Chilean Coast (15°–56.5° S)

  • Published:
Ocean Dynamics Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

In order to look for climatological changes on significant wave height and wind magnitude distributions, two decades of altimeter data were analyzed in a monthly 1° × 1° grid at the Southeastern Pacific Ocean, offshore of Chile. Both wind magnitude and significant wave height shown significant growing medians, at a rate of up to 0.2 m dec−1 and 1 m s−1 dec−1, respectively. Nevertheless, the shape of both statistical distributions shows regional differences from North to South. We conclude that both significant wave height and wind magnitude distributions experienced significant changes during the last two decades and also that their behavior is not uniform along the Southeastern Pacific Ocean.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Fig. 1
Fig. 2
Fig. 3
Fig. 4
Fig. 5
Fig. 6
Fig. 7

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  • Aguirre C, Rutllant JA, Falvey M (2017) Wind waves climatology of the Southeast Pacific Ocean. Int J Climatol 37(12):4288–4301

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Barstow SF (1996) World wave atlas. AVISO Newsletter, No. 4, AVISO, Ramonville St-Agne, France, 24–35

  • Caires S, Sterl A (2003) Validation of ocean wind and wave data using triple collocation. J Geophys Res 108:3098

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Chen G, Chapron B, Ezraty R, Vandemark D (2002) A global view of swell and wind sea climate in the ocean by satellite altimeter and scatterometer. J Atmos Ocean Technol 19(11):1849–1859

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Gulev SK, Grigorieva V (2006) Variability of the winter wind waves and swell in the North Atlantic and North Pacific as revealed by the voluntary observing ship data. J Clim 19(21):5667–5685

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Hemer MA, Church JA, Hunter JR (2010) Variability and trends in the directional wave climate of the Southern Hemisphere. Int J Climatol 30(4):475–491

    Google Scholar 

  • Hirsch R, Slack J, Smith R (1982) Techniques of trend analysis for monthly water quality data. Water Resour Res 18:107–121

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Kushnir Y, Cardone VJ, Greenwood JG, Cane MA (1997) The recent increase in North Atlantic Wave Heights. J Clim 10(8):2107–2113

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Queffeulou P Merged altimeter data base, an update. In: Proceedings of ESA. Living Planet Symposium, 9-13 September 2013, Edinburgh, UK

  • Queffeulou P, Croizé-Fillon D Global altimeter SWH data set, version 10. Tech. Rep. 2013, Laboratoire d’Océanographie Spatiale, IFREMER

  • Reyers M, Moemken J, Pinto JG (2016) Future changes of wind energy potentials over Europe in a large CMIP5 multimodel ensemble. Int J Climatol 36(2):783–796

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Semedo A, Sušelj K, Rutgersson A, Sterl A (2011) A global view on the wind sea and swell climate and variability from ERA-40. J Clim 24(5):1461–1479

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Semedo A, Weisse R, Behrens A, Sterl A, Bengtsson L, Günther H (2012) Projection of global wave climate change toward the end of the twenty-first century. J Clim 26(21):8269–8288

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Stopa JE, Cheung KF (2014) Intercomparison of wind and wave data from the ECMWF reanalysis interim and the NCEP climate forecast system reanalysis Ocean. Model. 75:65–83

    Google Scholar 

  • Wang XL, Feng Y, Swail VR (2014) Changes in global ocean wave heights as projected using multimodel CMIP5 simulations Geophys. Res Lett 41:1026–1034

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Young IR, Ribal A (2019) Multi-platform evaluation of global trends in wind speed and wave height. Science 364:548–552. https://doi.org/10.1126/science.aav9527

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Young IR, Zieger S, Babanin AV (2011) Global trends in wind speed and wave height. Science 332(6028):451–455

    Article  Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Author notes

  1. Dernis Mediavilla

    Present address: Marine Energy Research and Innovation Centre (MERIC), Santiago, Chile

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Graduate Program in Oceanography, Department of Oceanography, University of Concepción, Concepción, Chile

    Dernis Mediavilla

  2. Programa COPAS-Sur Austral, Universidad de Concepción, Concepción, Chile

    Dernis Mediavilla

  3. Geophysics Department, Faculty of Physical and Mathematical Sciences, Universidad de Concepción, Concepción, Chile

    Héctor Hito Sepúlveda

  4. Servicio de Hidrografía Naval, Armada Argentina, Av. Montes de Oca 2124, C1270ABV, Ciudad Autónoma de Buenos Aires, Argentina

    Guadalupe Alonso

Authors
  1. Dernis Mediavilla
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Héctor Hito Sepúlveda
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  3. Guadalupe Alonso
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Héctor Hito Sepúlveda.

Additional information

Responsible Editor: Alexander Babanin

This article is part of the Topical Collection on the International Conference of Marine Science ICMS2018, the 3rd Latin American Symposium on Water Waves (LatWaves 2018), Medellin, Colombia, 19-23 November 2018 and the XVIII National Seminar on Marine Sciences and Technologies (SENALMAR), Barranquilla, Colombia 22-25 October 2019

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Mediavilla, D., Sepúlveda, H.H. & Alonso, G. Wind and wave height climate from two decades of altimeter records on the Chilean Coast (15°–56.5° S). Ocean Dynamics 70, 231–239 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10236-019-01316-9

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10236-019-01316-9

Keywords

Search

Navigation