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A study on reflection pattern of swells from the shoreline of peninsular India

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Abstract

Information on reflected surface gravity waves from the shoreline is required for understanding the coastal hydrodynamics. We have quantified the reflected swells (frequency band 0.045–0.12 Hz) from the west and east coast of India based on the spectral wave data derived from the directional waverider buoys. Reflection coefficient, ratio of the reflected and incident spectral energy, was used to quantify the reflected waves. Influence of the seasons, cyclone, relative depth, land/sea breeze, tides and tidal current on the reflected waves were examined. For the locations off the west coast of India, seasons have large impact on the reflection coefficient and were relatively less during the monsoon season due to the increase in incident wave energy. Locations off the east coast of India show almost the same reflection coefficient throughout the year and have no significant seasonal variations. The reflection coefficient off Puducherry was higher than that for other locations due to the low incident wave energy. The reflection coefficient was low during the cyclone period, but the reflected energy during cyclone was higher than that during the normal condition due to the high incident wave energy. High-energy reflected waves show large variation with tide due to the trapping and dissipation of reflected wave by bottom friction and this effect cause low reflection in deep water location than shallow water location. The reflection coefficient decreases with increase in relative depth off west coast of India.

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Acknowledgments

The authors gratefully acknowledge the financial support given by the Earth System Science Organization, Ministry of Earth Sciences, Government of India, to conduct this research. The Director of the CSIR-National Institute of Oceanography, Goa and the Director of the INCOIS, Hyderabad, provided encouragement in carrying out the study. We thank Dr. T.M. Balakrishnan Nair, Head of the Ocean Science and Information Services Group of INCOIS, Hyderabad, Mr. Jai Singh, Technical Assistant at CSIR-NIO and Mr. Arun Nherakkol, Scientist, INCOIS for assistance during the data collection. This work forms a portion of the Ph.D. thesis by the first author. This work is NIO contribution No. 5586.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Ocean Engineering, CSIR-National Institute of Oceanography (Council of Scientific and Industrial Research), Dona Paula, Goa, 403 004, India

    T. R. Anoop, V. Sanil Kumar & Johnson Glejin

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  1. T. R. Anoop
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  2. V. Sanil Kumar
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  3. Johnson Glejin
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Correspondence to V. Sanil Kumar.

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Anoop, T.R., Kumar, V.S. & Glejin, J. A study on reflection pattern of swells from the shoreline of peninsular India. Nat Hazards 74, 1863–1879 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11069-014-1282-5

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11069-014-1282-5

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