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Hindcast of extreme sea states in North Atlantic extratropical storms

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Abstract

This study examines the variability of freak wave parameters around the eye of northern hemisphere extratropical cyclones. The data was obtained from a hindcast performed with the WAve Model (WAM) model forced by the wind fields of the Climate Forecast System Reanalysis (CFSR). The hindcast results were validated against the wave buoys and satellite altimetry data showing a good correlation. The variability of different wave parameters was assessed by applying the empirical orthogonal functions (EOF) technique on the hindcast data. From the EOF analysis, it can be concluded that the first empirical orthogonal function (V1) accounts for greater share of variability of significant wave height (Hs), peak period (Tp), directional spreading (SPR) and Benjamin-Feir index (BFI). The share of variance in V1 varies for cyclone and variable: for the 2nd storm and Hs V1 contains 96 % of variance while for the 3rd storm and BFI V1 accounts only for 26 % of variance. The spatial patterns of V1 show that the variables are distributed around the cyclones centres mainly in a lobular fashion.

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Acknowledgments

Tracks of the 2011 and 2013 storms where kindly made available by Guang Ping of EMC/NCEP. This work has been performed within the project CLIBECO—present and future marine climate in the Iberian coast, funded by the Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology (FCT—Fundação Portuguesa para a Ciência e a Tecnologia) under contract n.°: EXPL/AAG-MAA/1001/2013. The first author has been funded by Fundação para a Ciência e Tecnologia (Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology) under postdoctoral grant SFRH/BPD/84358/2012.

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  1. Centre for Marine Technology and Engineering (CENTEC), Instituto Superior Técnico, Universidade de Lisboa, Av. Rovisco Pais, 1049-001, Lisbon, Portugal

    Sonia Ponce de León & Carlos Guedes Soares

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  1. Sonia Ponce de León
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  2. Carlos Guedes Soares
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Correspondence to Carlos Guedes Soares.

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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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Ponce de León, S., Guedes Soares, C. Hindcast of extreme sea states in North Atlantic extratropical storms. Ocean Dynamics 65, 241–254 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10236-014-0794-6

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