Development of an ESMF Based Flexible Coupling Application of ADCIRC and WAVEWATCH III for High Fidelity Coastal Inundation Studies

• Published in: Journal of marine science and engineering Vol. 8; no. 5; p. 308
• Main Authors: Moghimi, Saeed, Van der Westhuysen, Andre, Abdolali, Ali, Myers, Edward, Vinogradov, Sergey, Ma, Zaizhong, Liu, Fei, Mehra, Avichal, Kurkowski, Nicole
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Basel MDPI AG 01.05.2020
• Subjects: Atmospheric models; Climate models; COASTAL Act; coastal flooding; Connectors; Coupling; earth system model coupling; Environment models; Environmental modeling; Exports; Finite element method; Flooding; Frameworks; hurricane inundation; Hurricanes; Hydrology; Infrastructure; Interfaces; Laboratory tests; Metadata; Methods; Modelling; Nanoelectromechanical systems; Software; storm surge; Storm surges; Storms; Surface waves; Technology application; Tidal waves; Water levels; Wave action; Weather forecasting; wind waves; United States
• ISSN: 2077-1312; 2077-1312
• DOI: 10.3390/jmse8050308

To enable flexible model coupling in coastal inundation studies, a coupling framework based on the Earth System Modeling Framework (ESMF) and the National Unified Operational Prediction Capability (NUOPC) technologies under a common modeling framework called the NOAA Environmental Modeling System (NEMS) was developed. The framework is essentially a software wrapper around atmospheric, wave and storm surge models that enables its components communicate seamlessly, and efficiently to run in massively parallel environments. For the first time, we are introducing the flexible coupled application of the ADvanced CIRCulation model (ADCIRC) and unstructured fully implicit WAVEWATCH III including NUOPC compliant caps to read Hurricane Weather Research and Forecasting Model (HWRF) generated forcing fields. We validated the coupled application for a laboratory test and a full scale inundation case of the Hurricane Ike, 2008, on a high resolution mesh covering the whole US Atlantic coast. We showed that how nonlinear interaction between surface waves and total water level results in significant enhancements and progression of the inundation and wave action into land in and around the hurricane landfall region. We also presented that how the maximum wave setup and maximum surge regions may happen at the various times and locations depending on the storm track and geographical properties of the landfall area.