Wave Hindcast and Extreme Value Analysis for the Southern Part of the Caspian Sea

Abstract

This paper describes the eleven years (1992–2002) of wave simulation in the Caspian Sea to achieve the wave climate atlas of this basin. The latest version of a 3rd generation wave hindcast model was used to predict wind wave characteristics during this period. The 10 meters wind field of the European Center for Medium Range Weather Forecasts (ECMWF) and the bathymetric map of the basin were employed as the input data of the model. In situ and satellite wind and wave data sets were used to evaluate the accuracy of the input wind field and the simulated wave field. Extreme Value Analysis (EVA) was the next stage in which the wave characteristics were calculated for different return periods and finally a user-friendly engineering and management tool was developed and verified to extract the required wind & wave characteristics in the basin.