North Sea Wave Analysis Using Data Assimilation and Mesoscale Model Forcing Winds

This article explores the use of the ensemble Kalman filter technique to improve the accuracy of North Sea wave field analyses. A nonhydrostatic convective-permitting mesoscale model was used to provide high-resolution forcing winds. These were adjusted by assimilating measurements of offshore wave heights directly into the wave model state. The ensemble Kalman filter data assimilation was shown to be very efficient, leading (compared to the results without data assimilation) to large reductions (up to 60%) in the root-mean-square error of the offshore wave heights and other model state variables, also (up to 40%) at locations other than those of the observations used.