Uncertainty of Ocean Wave Hindcasts Due to Wind Modeling

Abstract

Two wind models were developed and their results were compared with data gathered during the Wangara experiment, so as to characterize their uncertainty. One of the models was adopted to generate the wind fields used as input to a second generation wave model. The relative error in the wind speed was considered in order to assess the uncertainties of the predictions or the significant wave height. Different time steps for the wind input were also used to determine their effect on the predicted significant wave height.