Development and Validation of an Operational Forecasting System for Waves and Coastal Flooding and Drying in Cook Inlet, Alaska
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abstract
2017 American Society of Civil Engineers. Exposed on three sides to the Gulf of Alaska, the Cook Inlet region is an extremely dynamic system which has among the largest waves in the world. In addition, Cook Inlet exhibits the largest tidal fluctuations in the United States, and as a result, the nearshore regions encounter significant flooding and drying which poses threats to a variety of activities in the coastal regions. A coupled wind-wave-current system is developed to obtain daily forecasts of waves and circulation patterns. The SWAN wave model and the quasi three-dimensional EFDC flow model are implemented, using high-resolution WRF winds. The performance of these models is first verified using hindcast simulations. The forecasting system also simulates the extent of "wet" and "dry" regions in the coastal areas. The nested grid approach is utilized with high-resolution grids for two separate regions, namely the Kachemak Bay (KB) and the Upper Cook Inlet (UCI) region. To validate the efficiency of the forecasting system to reliably predict the wave parameters, satellite data from currently flying missions such as JASON-2, and CRYOSAT-2 are utilized. Moreover, the data from the Terra (MODIS) satellite are used to obtain true color and land reflectance (band 1-2) images of the Cook Inlet region. These images are then used to corroborate the efficacy of the system for providing accurate estimates of the extent of "wet" and "dry" regions. Good agreement between data and model results demonstrate the efficiency of this coupled system for operational forecasting.
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Coastal Structures and Solutions to Coastal Disasters 2015
