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ESTELA: a method for evaluating the source and travel time of the wave energy reaching a local area

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Abstract

The description of wave climate at a local scale is of paramount importance for offshore and coastal engineering applications. Conditions influencing wave characteristics at a specific location cannot, however, be fully understood by studying only local information. It is necessary to take into account the dynamics of the ocean surface over a large ‘upstream’ wave generation area. The goal of this work is to provide a methodology to easily characterize the area of influence of any particular ocean location worldwide. Moreover, the developed method is able to characterize the wave energy and travel time in that area. The method is based on a global scale analysis using both geographically and physically based criteria. The geographic criteria rely on the assumption that deep water waves travel along great circle paths. This limits the area of influence by neglecting energy that cannot reach a target point, as its path is blocked by land. The individual spectral partitions from a global wave reanalysis are used to reconstruct the spectral information and apply the physically based criteria. The criteria are based on the selection of the fraction of energy that travels towards the target point for each analysed grid point. The method has been tested on several locations worldwide. Results provide maps that inform about the relative importance of different oceanic areas to the local wave climate at any target point. This information cannot be inferred from local parameters and agrees with information from other approaches. The methodology may be useful in a number of applications, such as statistical downscaling, storm tracking and grid definition in numerical modelling.

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Acknowledgments

The work was partly funded by the project iMar21 (CTM2010-15009) from the Spanish Government and the FP7 European project CoCoNet (287844). The authors would also like to acknowledge the valuable suggestions made by Paula Camus, Antonio Espejo and Antonio Tomas. We also thank the anonymous reviewers for their comments and suggestions.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Environmental Hydraulics Institute IH Cantabria, Universidad de Cantabria, C/Isabel Torres nº 15. Parque Científico y Tecnológico, 39011, Santander, Spain

    Jorge Pérez, Fernando J. Méndez, Melisa Menéndez & Inigo J. Losada

Authors
  1. Jorge Pérez
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  2. Fernando J. Méndez
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  3. Melisa Menéndez
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  4. Inigo J. Losada
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Fernando J. Méndez.

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Responsible Editor: Oyvind Breivik

This article is part of the Topical Collection on the 13th International Workshop on Wave Hindcasting and Forecasting in Banff, Alberta, Canada October 27 - November 1, 2013

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Pérez, J., Méndez, F.J., Menéndez, M. et al. ESTELA: a method for evaluating the source and travel time of the wave energy reaching a local area. Ocean Dynamics 64, 1181–1191 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10236-014-0740-7

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10236-014-0740-7

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