Waves in polar lows

Abstract

In a rather stationary fetch, one would not expect large waves in polar low situations. However, the picture changes when one considers a moving fetch. The significant wave heights that may be associated with the recorded polar lows on the Norwegian continental shelf from December 1999 to October 2015 are estimated using a one-dimensional parametric wave model. A comparison of the measured and the forecasted significant wave heights in two recent polar low cases in the Barents Sea is presented. The estimated significant wave heights show that the values could have been up to and above 9 m. The forecasted significant wave heights considerably underestimated the measured significant wave heights in the two recent polar low cases that are considered. Furthermore, a generalization of the fetch-limited wave equation in polar lows is proposed, which allows the wind field to vary in space and time, and is shown to give results that are consistent with the one-dimensional parametric model.