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The wave climate of Liverpool Bay—observations and modelling

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Abstract

Directional wave measurements have been made in Liverpool Bay by means of wave buoys and acoustic instruments within the footprint of a phased-array high frequency (HF) radar system, which measures currents and waves. Several years of data have now been collected and are supplemented by an 11-year wave model hindcast. Wave parameters have been derived from the various instruments and compared: the directional waverider buoy is taken to provide the ground truth, confirming the good observations obtained from the ADCP; the HF radar wave data have a positive bias, while the model data have a negative bias. The variation of wave climate over various time-scales from seasonal and inter-annual to inter-decadal is examined. Significant wave–current interactions may occur in this area of shallow water and high tidal range and the measurements provide a good test of coupled hydrodynamic-wave models. The waves are mainly fetch-limited: largest events are due to depressions, which track across the UK from SW, generating westerly and WNW winds in the right rear quadrant. Hence, the future extreme wave events will be closely related to future North Atlantic storm tracks. Projections of 50-year return period wave heights differ between different instruments and model datasets. The future wave climate of Liverpool Bay is not expected to change much from the present day; although a slight increase in the severity of the most extreme events is projected, the frequency of extreme wind and wave events in general is slightly reduced. There is evidence for variability on decadal time-scales, with some correlation with the North Atlantic oscillation.

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Acknowledgements

Part of this research was funded by the NERC–FREE CoFEE (grant NE/E002471/1) and the EU FP7 MICORE (grant 202798) projects. Some of the wave buoy data were obtained from the Centre for Environment Fisheries and Aquaculture Science (CEFAS) WaveNet system (http://www.cefas.co.uk/our-science/observing-and-modelling/monitoring-programmes/wavenet.aspx). We are grateful to RWE npower renewables for provision of the wind data from Gwynt y Môr. Thanks also to Tim Osborn and Phil Jones of the UEA CRU for providing NAO index data on their web site: http://www.cru.uea.ac.uk/∼timo/datapages/naoi.htm.

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  1. National Oceanography Centre, 6, Brownlow St, Liverpool, L3 5DA, UK

    Judith Wolf, Jennifer Mary Brown & Michael John Howarth

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  1. Judith Wolf
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  2. Jennifer Mary Brown
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  3. Michael John Howarth
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Correspondence to Judith Wolf.

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Responsible Editor: Claire Mahaffey

This article is part of the Topical Collection on the UK National Oceanography Centre's Irish Sea Coastal Observatory

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Wolf, J., Brown, J.M. & Howarth, M.J. The wave climate of Liverpool Bay—observations and modelling. Ocean Dynamics 61, 639–655 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10236-011-0376-9

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