Low-frequency sea waves generated by atmospheric convection cells

Abstract

The atmospheric origin of low-frequency sea waves that cause seiches in the Port of Rotterdam is investigated using hydrological and meteorological observations. These observations, combined with weather charts, show that all significant seiche events coincide with the passage of a low-pressure area and a cold front. Following these front passages, increased wind speed fluctuations occur with periods on the order of 1 hour. The records show that enhanced low-frequency wave energy at sea and the seiche events in the harbor occur more or less simultaneously with these strong wind speed fluctuations. These oscillatory wind speed changes are due to convection cells that arise in an unstable lower atmosphere in the area behind a cold front, where cold air moves over the relatively warm sea surface. It is shown that the moving system of a cold front and trailing convection cells generates forced low-frequency waves at sea that can cause seiche events inside the harbor. The occurrence of such events may be predictable operationally on the basis of a criterion for the difference in temperature between the air in the upper atmosphere and the water at the sea surface. Copyright 2004 by the American Geophysical Union.