Environmental Sciences

Trend Analysis of Extreme Wind and Wave Height at Key Port Locations Along the Indian Coastline

Trend Analysis of Extreme Wind and Wave Height at Key Port Locations Along the Indian Coastline

There is an increasing trend in mean significant wave height (SWH) during the monsoon (JJA) and post-monsoon season (SON) in the Indian coastline, while there is a decreasing and an increasing trend in JJA and SON respectively for mean wind speed (WS).

Authors

Ramakant Prasad, Department of Applied Sciences, National Institute of Technology Delhi, Delhi, 110040, India

Prashant Kumar, Department of Applied Sciences, National Institute of Technology Delhi, Delhi, 110040, India

Anurag Singh, Department of Computer Science and Engineering, National Institute of Technology Delhi, Delhi, India

Anushka Sunil, Department of Applied Sciences, National Institute of Technology Delhi, Delhi, 110040, India

Avinash Kumar, National Centre for Polar and Ocean Research, Ministry of Earth Sciences, Government of India, Vasco da Gama, India

Anindita Patra, Research & Development (R&D) Group, Electricity de France (EDF), Palaiseau, France

Rajni, Associate Professor, Jindal Global Business School, O.P. Jindal Global University, Sonipat, Haryana, 131001, India

Summary

Long-term trends of wind speed (WS) and significant wave height (SWH) in the Arabian Sea (AS) and Bay of Bengal (BoB) are of great interest to scientists, engineers, climate modelers, and policymakers. It is associated with global climate change and efficient offshore and near-shore socio-economic activity management.

In this study, the climatology and variability of mean and extreme SWH and WS are determined during the monsoon (JJA) and post-monsoon (SON) seasons along the Indian coastline during 1979−2021 using ERA5 reanalysis datasets. The ERA5 dataset are validated against altimeter data for SWH climatology during 2016–2020. Furthermore, buoy data of July and November 2021 are utilized for validation of SWH at four locations (Visakhapatnam, Pondicherry, Kollam, and Versova) along the Indian coastline.

The non-stationary generalized extreme value (GEV) distribution is utilized to determine the extreme values of SWH and WS. Further, linear trend analysis is also carried out at six key port locations (Paradip, Visakhapatnam, Chennai, Mumbai, Mangalore, and Kochi) along the Indian coastline.

The outcome reveals that mean SWH displays an increasing trend (Paradip, Visakhapatnam, Chennai, Mumbai, Mangalore, and Kochi) during the JJA and SON seasons, while mean WS shows a decreasing trend in the JJA season and an increasing trend in the SON season.

The maximum rate of increase in extreme SWH is observed at Kochi (r = 0.78 cm yr− 1) and Paradip port (1.32 cm yr− 1) during JJA and SON seasons, respectively. In SON season, extreme WS exhibits an increasing trend at all six locations, and the rate of increase is maximum at Visakhapatnam (3.46 cm s− 1 yr− 1), followed by Paradip (3.39 cm s− 1 yr− 1) and minimum at Mumbai (1.84 cm s− 1 yr− 1). Kochi and Paradip ports experienced a significant increase in extreme SWH and WS during JJA and SON seasons, respectively.

Published in: Thalassas: An International Journal of Marine

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