Numerical Modeling of the Wave Climate in the Southern Baltic Sea

Abstract

The numerical spectral wave generation and propagation model WAVAD was used to derive the wave climate over 19 years at four locations in the southern Baltic Sea, namely in the Pomeranian Bay, and outside the Polish, Lithuanian, and Latvian coasts. One-, 10-, and 50-year wave heights were estimated based on the obtained wave climates. Quantitative knowledge about wave climate is important when modeling regional fluxes of sediment and matter, which was the main objective of the BASYS-project, under which this study was carried out. A validation of the model against wave measurements obtained at three locations in the Baltic Sea showed satisfactory model predictions of significant wave height and moderately accurate predictions of peak spectral wave period and direction. Also, the frequency spectrum could be calculated with fair accuracy, whereas the agreement between predicted and measured directional-frequency spectra was less good. The latter most likely depends on the "pre determined" modeled spectral shape (WAVAD being a 2nd-generation model), a somewhat crude description of spatial and temporal variation of the wind field, and the method used to derive the spectrum from measurements.