Improvement of Wavewatch III output through a wind speed modification based in boundary layer temperature variability

TL;DR

This paper proposes an empirical correction method for Wavewatch III model errors in significant wave height by incorporating boundary layer thermal variability, improving model accuracy based on observed temperature differences.

Contribution

It introduces a novel empirical correction approach that accounts for thermal variations in the boundary layer to reduce wave height prediction errors.

Findings

Strong correlation between temperature difference and model error

Linear correction improves wave height predictions

Method enhances Wavewatch III accuracy in 2015 data

Abstract

We present here an empirical method aimed at decreasing the error in the significant wave height calculated through the Wave Watch model. The errors are calculated as the difference between the modeled and the locally observed measurement. We hypothesize that this error would be reduced if the model used a well calibrated method to account for thermal variations within the surface boundary layer. We compared then this error for 2015 to the air sea temperature difference in order to find a potential relationship among them. The statistical analysis performed show a clear correlation between these variables, hinting for the need of introducing a correction for stability based on a linear relationship between the error and the air ocean temperature difference.