PATRICK MARCHESIELLO
IRD Noumea Center
BPA5 - 98848 Noumea Cedex
New Caledonia
Patrick.Marchesiello@noumea.ird.nc 		FABRICE ARDHUIN
SHOM - French Naval Oceanographic Center
13 rue du Chatellier, CS 92803, 29228 BREST CEDEX 2
France

EXPERIMENTAL WAVE FORECAST AROUND NEW CALEDONIA
DISCLAIMER: This forecast is part of a French program for coastal ocean prediction (PREVIMER). This page simply provides a remapping of the Previmer product for New Caledonia. They are experimental graphical products, which are provided "as is" without warranty of any kind, including any implied warranties of merchantability or fitness for a particular purpose.

TOTAL Wave Height and Peak Period

Today
 Tomorrow
 In 2 days
Hs 05h 11h 17h 23h 05h 11h 17h 23h 05h 11h 17h
Tp 05h 11h 17h 23h 05h 11h 17h 23h 05h 11h 17h
WIND SEA
Hs 05h 11h 17h 23h 05h 11h 17h 23h 05h 11h 17h
Tp 05h 11h 17h 23h 05h 11h 17h 23h 05h 11h 17h
PRIMARY SWELL
Hs 05h 11h 17h 23h 05h 11h 17h 23h 05h 11h 17h
Tp 05h 11h 17h 23h 05h 11h 17h 23h 05h 11h 17h

Regional WW3 simulation for New Caledonia wave amplitude and direction

MODEL DESCRIPTION

The PREVIMER wave forecasting system developed by the the French naval research service (SHOM, F. Ardhuin) provides wave predictions for the global ocean with refinements in coastal zones. The forecast is for up to 6 days with an output frequency of 3 hours (or 1 hour when tidal currents are considered, which is not the case here yet). The global wave forecast is performed using wind analyses and forecasts from the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts (data provided by Meteo-France) and sea ice concentration analyses from U.S. National Weather Service (NOAA/NCEP).

All computations are produced with the WAVEWATCH III model developed as a collaboration project led by NOAA/NCEP, with important contributions from SHOM on the wave generation and dissipation parameterizations, and the Technical University of Darmstadt on numerical schemes on triangular meshes. The downscaling of wave fields in the New Caledonia region is computed as a two-way nested solution, i.e. embedded into the global model. The average resolution of the wave field presented here is 5km.

The main difference between this model and those ran at NCEP or FNMOC is:
- the resolution
- the wind forcing
- the generation dissipation parameterizations (Ardhuin et al. 2009a, Ardhuin et al. 2009b)
Based on routine verification (under a IOC-WMO Joint Commission on Oceanography and Marine Meteorology,JCOMM, project) the PREVIMER forecasts are expectedly the most accurate. This should be particularly true for New Caledonia where no other equivalent high resolution forecast is available.

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