Impact of nonlinear energy transfer on the wave field in Pacific hindcast experiments

Abstract

We investigated the impact of nonlinear energy transfer (Snl) on wave fields by performing hindcast experiments for the Pacific Ocean. Specifically, we evaluated model performance using SRIAM, which was developed to accurately reproduce Snl with lower computational cost than more rigorous algorithms. The model results were compared to in situ wave parameters as well as results from another model employing the widely used discrete interaction approximation method (DIA). Comparison of the model results with buoy observations revealed a negligible difference between SRIAM and DIA for significant wave heights. However, the difference for the peak period was quite pronounced, especially around the tropical Pacific, where a persistent bias in peak frequency was improved by using SRIAM. This study also highlights the impact of source terms on spectral shape under a realistic model setting. Detailed analysis of spectral shape indicated that SRIAM can quantitatively capture the overshoot phenomena around the spectral peak during wave growth. In addition, Snl played a major role in maintaining the equilibrium range; it reacted to changes in the net external sources to cancel out the total source term. These results show that the magnitude of high-frequency dissipation controls the spectral tail exponent and that the balanced net external source is responsible for the reproduction of the f-4 power law behavior in the equilibrium range. © 2010 by the American Geophysical Union.