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Bimodality and growth of the spectra of typhoon-generated waves in northern South China Sea

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Abstract

Buoy-based observations of wave spectra during the passage of three typhoons in the northern South China Sea are examined. Though most spectra of mature typhoon-generated waves are unimodal, double-peaked spectra account for a significant proportion during the growing and decaying stages. This is due either to the superposition of swells on local wind waves or to the mechanism of nonlinear interaction between different wave components. The growth rate of energy density is an effective way to predict spectrum variation. The dominant wave direction depends on the location of the typhoon center to the site, but the direction spread shows no regularity in distant regions. In this study, a new six-parameter spectral formula is proposed to represent double-peaked spectra and is shown to provide a better fit than previous models. The theoretical relationship between shape parameter and spectral width is still applicable to each peak. The characteristics of the variations of spectral parameters are analyzed. It is demonstrated that the spectral parameters are not only related to the typhoon intensity and typhoon track, but also have strong intercorrelations. Moreover, the growth relation between significant wave height and significant wave period is obtained to fit the typhoon-generated waves.

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Acknowledgments

We thank LetPub for providing linguistic assistance during the preparation of this manuscript.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. CAS Key Laboratory of Ocean Circulation and Waves, Institute of Oceanology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Qingdao, 266071, China

    Dongxue Mo, Yahao Liu, Yijun Hou & Ze Liu

  2. Laboratory for Ocean Dynamics and Climate, Pilot National Laboratory for Marine Science and Technology (Qingdao), Qingdao, 266237, China

    Dongxue Mo, Yahao Liu, Yijun Hou & Ze Liu

  3. University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Bei**g, 100049, China

    Dongxue Mo & Yijun Hou

  4. Center for Ocean Mega-Science, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Qingdao, 266071, China

    Dongxue Mo, Yahao Liu, Yijun Hou & Ze Liu

Authors
  1. Dongxue Mo
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  2. Yahao Liu
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  3. Yijun Hou
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  4. Ze Liu
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Correspondence to Yahao Liu.

Additional information

Foundation item: The National Natural Science Foundation of China under contract No. U1706216; the National Key Research and Development Program of China under contract Nos 2016YFC1402000 and 2018YFC1407003; the National Natural Science Foundation of China under contract Nos 41406017, U1406402 and 41421005; the CAS Strategic Priority Project under contract Nos XDA19060202 and XDA19060502.

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Mo, D., Liu, Y., Hou, Y. et al. Bimodality and growth of the spectra of typhoon-generated waves in northern South China Sea. Acta Oceanol. Sin. 38, 70–80 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s13131-019-1500-9

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s13131-019-1500-9

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