Abstract
The spatial and temporal variations of wave height in shelf seas around Indian mainland are examined based on the ERA-Interim dataset produced by the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts. The study shows that during the summer monsoon, higher wave heights are observed in all locations except at the southern locations in the shelf seas around India, where the winter monsoon is predominant. The annual average significant wave height is highest (~1.6 m) at the southern location. During 1979–2012, a weak statistically significant increasing trend (maximum ~0.20 cm/year) in wave height is observed in the northern and southern region of eastern Arabian Sea, whereas the middle region shows negligible negative trend. A weak decreasing trend (maximum ~−0.18 cm/year) in wave height is observed in the western Bay of Bengal except along the southern region. At most of the locations weak decreasing trend (0.1–2.5 cm/s/year) is observed for the annual mean wind speed. The conflicting trends in the wind speed and wave height are mainly due to the swell dominance in the North Indian Ocean.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Allan J, Komar PD (2000) Are ocean wave heights increasing in the eastern North Pacific? Eos Trans AGU 47:566–567
Amrutha MM, Kumar V, Anoop TR, Nair TMB, Nherakkol N, Jeyakumar C (2014) Waves off Gopalpur, Northern Bay of Bengal during the cyclone PHAILIN. Ann Geophys 32:1073–1083
Appendini C, Torres-Freyermuth A, Salles P, Lopez J, Mendoza ET (2014) Wave climate and trends for the Gulf of Mexico: a 30-year wave hindcast. J Clim 27:1619–1632. doi:10.1175/JCLI-D-13-00206.1
Bhaskaran PK, Gupta N, Dash MK (2014) Wind-wave climate projections for the Indian Ocean from satellite observations. J Mar Sci Res Dev S11:005. doi:10.4172/2155-9910.S11-005
Burkey J (2006) A non-parametric monotonic trend test computing Mann-Kendall Tau, Tau-b, and Sen’s Slope written in Mathworks-MATLAB implemented using matrix rotations, King County, Department of Natural Resources and Parks, Science and Technical Services section, Seattle, Washington, USA
Carter DJT, Draper L (1988) Has the North East Atlantic become rougher? Nature 332:494
Chandramohan P, Sanil Kumar V, Nayak BU (1991) Wave statistics around Indian Ocean. Indian J Mar Sci 20:87–92
Dee DP, Uppala SM, Simmons AJ, Berrisford P, Poli P, Kobayashi S, Andrae U, Balmaseda MA, Balsamo G, Bauer P, Bechtold P, Beljaars ACM, van de Berg L, Bidlot J, Bormann N, Delsol C, Dragani R, Fuentes M, Geer AJ, Haimberger L, Healy SB, Hersbach H, Hólm EV, Isaksen L, Kållberg P, Köhler M, Matricardi M, McNally AP, Monge-Sanz BM, Morcrette J-J, Park B-K, Peubey C, de Rosnay P, Tavolato C, Thépaut J-N, Vitart F (2011) The ERA-Interim reanalysis: configuration and performance of the data assimilation system. Q J R Meteorol Soc 137:553–597. doi:10.1002/qj.828
Glejin J, Kumar VS, Nair TMB, Singh J (2013a) Influence of winds on temporally varying short and long period gravity waves in the near shore regions of the eastern Arabian Sea. Ocean Sci 9:1–11
Glejin J, Kumar VS, Nair TMB (2013b) Monsoon and cyclone induced wave climate over the near shore waters off Puducherry, south western Bay of Bengal. Ocean Eng 72:277–286
Gowthaman R, Kumar VS, Dwarakish GS, Soumya SM, Singh J, Kumar KA (2013) Waves in Gulf of Mannar and Palk Bay around Dhanushkodi, Tamil Nadu, India. Curr Sci 104:1431–1435
Gulev SK, Grigorieva V (2004) Last century changes in ocean wind wave height from global visual wave data. Geophys Res Lett 31:L24302. doi:10.1029/2004GL021040
Hemer MA, Church JA, Hunter JR (2010) Variability and trends in the directional wave climate of the Southern Hemisphere. Int J Climatol 30:475–491
Komen GJ, Cavaleri L, Doneland M, Hasselmann K, Hasselmann S, Janssen PAEM (1994) Dynamics and modelling of ocean waves. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge
Kumar VS, Anand NM (2004) Variations in wave direction estimated using first and second order Fourier coefficients. Ocean Eng 31:2105–2119
Kumar VS, Pathak KC, Pednekar P, Raju NSN, Gowthaman R (2006) Coastal processes along the Indian coastline. Curr Sci 91:530–536
Kumar VS, Philip CS, Nair TNB (2010) Waves in shallow water off west coast of India during the onset of summer monsoon. Ann Geophys 28:817–824
Kumar VS, Glejin J, Dora GU, Sajiv CP, Singh J, Pednekar P (2012) Variations in nearshore waves along Karnataka, west coast of India. J Earth Syst Sci 121:393–403
Kumar D, Sannasiraj SA, Sundar V, Polnikov VG (2013a) Wind-wave characteristics and climate variability in the Indian Ocean region using altimeter data. Mar Geodesy 36:303–313
Kumar VS, Dubhashi KK, Nair TMB, Singh J (2013b) Wave power potential at few shallow water locations around Indian coast. Curr Sci 104:1219–1224
Kumar VS, Glejin J, Dubhashi KK, Nair TMB (2013c) Waves during THANE cyclone, Bay of Bengal. Nat Hazards 69(1):509–522
Kumar VS, Dubhashi KK, Nair TMB (2014) Wave spectral characteristics off Gangavaram, East Coast of India. J Oceanogr 70:307–321
Nayak BU, Chandramohan P, Sakhardande RK (1992) Seasonal distribution of wave heights off Yanam on the East Coast of India. J Inst Eng (India) 72:187–193
Nayak S, Bhaskaran PK, Venkatesan R, Dasgupta S (2013) Modulation of local wind waves at Kalpakkam from remote forcing effects of Southern Ocean swells. Ocean Eng 64:23–35
Premkumar K, Ravichandran M, Kalsi SR, Sengupta D, Gadgil S (2000) First results from a new observational system over the Indian Seas. Curr Sci 78:323–330
Rameshkumar MR, Byju P (2010) A multi-sensor study of conditions leading to the formation of a cyclone over the Arabian Sea during 5–9 May 2004. Int J Remote Sens 31:4683–4697
Sajiv PC, Kumar VS, Glejin J, Udhaba DG, Vinayaraj P (2012) Interannual and seasonal variations in nearshore wave characteristics off Honnavar, west coast of India. Curr Sci 103:286–292
Sen PK (1968) Estimates of the regression coefficient based on Kendall’s tau. J Am Stat Assoc 63:1379–1389
Shanas PR, Kumar VS (2014) Temporal variations in the wind and wave climate at a location in the eastern Arabian Sea based on ERA-Interim reanalysis data. Nat Hazards Earth Syst Sci 14:1371–1381. doi:10.5194/nhess-14-1371-2014
Shanas PR, Kumar VS (2015) Trends in surface wind speed and significant wave height as revealed by ERA-Interim wind wave hindcast in the Central Bay of Bengal. Int J Climatol. doi:10.1002/joc.4164
Simmons A, Uppala C, Dee D, Kobayashi S (2007) ERA-Interim: new ECMWF reanalysis products from 1989 onwards. ECMWF Newsl 110:25–35
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. doi:10.1016/j.ocemod.2013.12.006
Sundar V (1986) Wave characteristics off the South East Coast of India. Ocean Eng 13:327–338
Weisse R, von Storch H (2010) Marine climate and climate change: storms, wind waves and storm surges. Springer Praxis, 200 pp
Young IR, Zieger S, Babanin A (2011) Global trends in wind speed and wave height. Science 332(6028):451–455
Acknowledgments
Dr. S. W. A. Naqvi, Director, CSIR-National Institute of Oceanography, Goa, provided encouragement to carry out the study. The buoy data used for validation were collected by the National Institute of Ocean Technology (Ministry of Earth Sciences), Chennai. We thank the anonymous reviewers for the constructive comments and suggestions that substantially improved the paper. This work is NIO Contribution Number 5754.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Kumar, V.S., Anoop, T.R. Spatial and temporal variations of wave height in shelf seas around India. Nat Hazards 78, 1693–1706 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11069-015-1796-5
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11069-015-1796-5