The Spatial Distribution of Ocean Waves in Tropical Cyclones

Abstract

The spatial structure of both the wind and wave fields within tropical cyclones is investigated using two large databases. The first of these was compiled from global overpasses of tropical cyclones by satellite altimeters. The second dataset consists of an extensive collection of North American buoy measurements during the passage of tropical cyclones (hurricanes). The combined datasets confirm the vortex structure of the tropical cyclone wind field with the strongest winds to the right (Northern Hemisphere) of the storm. The wave field largely mirrors the wind field but with greater right–left asymmetry that results from the extended fetch to the right of the translating tropical cyclone. The extensive in situ buoy database confirms previous studies indicating that the one-dimensional spectra are generally unimodal. The directional spectra are, however, directionally skewed, consisting of remotely generated waves radiating out from the center of the storm and locally generated wind sea. The one-dimensional wave spectra have many similarities to fetch-limited cases, although for a given peak frequency the spectra contain less energy than for a fetch-limited case. This result is consistent with the fact that much of the wave field is dominated by remotely generated waves.