Modulation of local wind-waves at Kalpakkam from remote forcing effects of Southern Ocean swells

Abstract: The importance of wave evolution and necessity for reliable prediction in coastal environments is widely recognized in many ocean engineering applications. Numerical wave models developed for limited area forecast can predict ocean waves fairly well upon imposing realistic boundary conditions from measurements. The forecast quality wherein depends on the number of measured data from various platforms specified along model boundary, which is undoubtedly very expensive. In a highly dynamic coastal environment, non-linear interaction from distant long period swells can essentially modulate the local wind-waves. This effect is more pronounced when local wind waves are opposed by distant swells reaching the coast. In addition, small scale convective phenomena like land and sea breeze create localized wind-sea having wide degree of directional behavior, thereby resulting in a more complex non-linear interaction process. For operational scenario, multi-scale modeling approach could be recommended as the best choice. The present work investigates influence of distant swells generated from Southern Ocean, and their role in modifying local wind-waves at coastal Kalpakkam located at south-east coast of India. Numerical experiments were performed to understand the influence of distant swells in modulating the local wind-waves which resulted in enhancing the wave energy by almost double off Kalpakkam coast. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]