The effects of tropical cyclone characteristics on the surface wave fields in Australia's North West region

Drost, Edwin J.F.; Lowe, Ryan J.; Ivey, Gregory; Jones, Nicole L.; Péquignet, Christine

doi:10.1016/j.csr.2017.03.006

Cited by 31 publications

(35 citation statements)

References 48 publications

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“…During the austral winter months, wind wave energy over the shelf is predominantly related to remotely generated Southern Ocean storms, inducing long‐period swell (>12 s) originating from the south‐west (Hamilton, ). During summer, most of the high energy wave conditions are associated with tropical cyclones, with peak wave periods usually ranging between 8 and 12 s and with significant wave heights exceeding 10 m at the shelf break (Drost et al, ). Another dominant mode of wave energy during summer is associated with the diurnal sea‐breeze cycle, generating short‐period waves (<8 s; Hamilton, ).…”

Section: Regional Settingmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Over the NWS, TCs are known to substantially modify the offshore hydrodynamic conditions (Drost et al, ; Hearn & Holloway, ; Rayson et al, ) and induce flash flooding and intermittent coastal sediment discharge (Semeniuk, ), which together could be major drivers of the regional sediment dynamics. Sediment dynamics during TC events have also been suggested to be capable of modifying the light availability over the NWS that helps to dampen the phytoplankton bloom resulting from cyclone‐driven nutrient enrichment (Condie et al, ).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Tropical Cyclone‐Driven Sediment Dynamics Over the Australian North West Shelf

et al. 2017

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Owing to their strong forcing at the air‐sea interface, tropical cyclones are a major driver of hydrodynamics and sediment dynamics of continental shelves, strongly impacting marine habitats and offshore industries. Despite the North West Shelf of Australia being one of the most frequently impacted tropical cyclone regions worldwide, there is limited knowledge of how tropical cyclones influence the sediment dynamics of this shelf region, including the significance of these episodic extreme events to the normal background conditions that occur. Using an extensive 2 year data set of the in situ sediment dynamics and 14 yearlong calibrated satellite ocean‐color data set, we demonstrate that alongshore propagating cyclones are responsible for simultaneously generating both strong wave‐induced sediment resuspension events and significant southwestward subtidal currents. Over the 2 year study period, two particular cyclones (Iggy and Narelle) dominated the sediment fluxes resulting in a residual southwestward sediment transport over the southern part of the shelf. By analyzing results from a long‐term (37 year) wind and wave hindcast, our results suggest that at least 16 tropical cyclones had a strong potential to contribute to that southwestward sediment pathway in a similar way to Iggy and Narelle.

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Section: Regional Settingmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Tropical Cyclone‐Driven Sediment Dynamics Over the Australian North West Shelf

et al. 2017

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“…Ningaloo Reef is located along Australia's Northwest Shelf, which is the most cyclone prone region of Australia, experiencing 1-2 TCs per year (Drost et al 2017). In order to opportunistically capture the impact of a TC on this reeffronted coastline, five pressure sensors (Fig.…”

Section: Study Areamentioning

confidence: 99%

Response of a fringing reef coastline to the direct impact of a tropical cyclone

Cuttler

Hansen

Lowe

et al. 2018

Limnol Oceanogr Letters

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Tropical cyclones generate extreme hazards along coastlines, often leading to losses of life and property. Although coral reefs exist in cyclone-prone regions globally, few studies have measured the hydrodynamic conditions and morphological responses of reef-fringed coastlines to tropical cyclones. Here, we examine the impact of Tropical Cyclone Olwyn on a section of Australia's largest fringing reef (Ningaloo Reef) using in situ wave and water level observations, topographic surveys, and numerical modeling. Despite forereef significant wave heights reaching 6 m and local winds of 140 km h 21 , average beach volume change was only 23 m 3 m 21 . The results indicate that this erosion was due to locally generated wind waves within the lagoon rather than the offshore waves that were dissipated on the reef crest. A comparison of these volume changes to observations of tropical cyclone impacts along exposed sandy beaches quantitatively demonstrates the substantial coastal protection reefs can provide against extreme storms.The coastal impacts of tropical cyclones (TCs), namely erosion, flooding, and habitat destruction, have been well documented globally (Castillo et al. 2012;Woodruff et al. 2013). Existing studies of TC impacts on coral reef-fringed coastlines have primarily focused on the impact to the coral communities (Harmelin-Vivien 1994), the hydrodynamic *Correspondence: michael.cuttler@uwa.edu.au Author Contribution Statement: MVWC collected and analyzed the field data, developed and analyzed the numerical model, and wrote the manuscript. JEH helped with data analysis and interpretation, model development and analysis, and provided critical review of the manuscript. RJL helped with experimental design, data and model interpretation, and provided critical review of the manuscript. EJFD developed the regional-scale model and helped with development and validation of the local model. Data Availability Statement:The metadata and specific data files used in the analyses described in the text and Supporting Information are accessible at https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.1162945Additional Supporting Information may be found in the online version of this article.This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. Scientific Significance StatementTropical cyclones can have catastrophic consequences for coastal infrastructure, marine habitats, and coastal populations worldwide. However, coral reefs can provide natural coastal protection by reducing the amount of wave energy reaching coastlines. Here, we quantify the coastal protection afforded by a fringing reef from a direct tropical cyclone impact and show that the observed beach erosion was not associated with the magnitude of the extreme offshore waves, but rather due to local wind wave growth across the lagoon. These results can be applied to assess coastal hazards facing reef-fringed coastlines due to extreme ...

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“…Depth‐limited wave breaking was calculated based on the Battjes and Janssen () formulation using a default breaking index value of γ = 0.73. The bottom friction was computed using the Madsen et al () formulation with a roughness length scale of 0.05 m. The SWAN model has previously been applied to the NWS and showed good agreement with in situ data in the vicinity of TCs (Drost et al, ).…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…With an average of ~3 TCs per year, Australia's North West Shelf (NWS) is a TC hot spot in the Indo‐Pacific region (Condie et al, ). In this economically important marine region, where oil, gas, and mineral export facilities coexist with high value marine ecosystems (Longley et al, ), TCs are known to strongly modify the shelf hydrodynamics (Drost et al, ; Hearn & Holloway, ; Rayson et al, ). As a consequence, TCs have been observed to play an important role in modulating the sediment dynamics over the shelf (Dufois et al, ) and drive major and rapid morphological changes along the coastline (Cuttler et al, ).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

A Numerical Study of Tropical Cyclone‐Induced Sediment Dynamics on the Australian North West Shelf

et al. 2018

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Owing to their strong forcing of the ocean surface, tropical cyclones strongly modify the hydrodynamics of Australia's North West Shelf (one of the world's tropical cyclone hot spots), which in turn plays a dominant role in its sediment dynamics. Previous modeling studies have focused on describing the short‐term sediment dynamics during individual tropical cyclones but have lacked validation of the responses using field observations. As a consequence, the long‐term cumulative impact of the tropical cyclones on the residual sediment transport pathways at the shelf scale remains unclear. In this study we apply a sediment transport model over the North West Shelf, validate its performance using an extensive field data set, and implement a 14‐year‐long model simulation to assess the sediment fluxes. The model results confirm the overwhelming role tropical cyclones play on sediment transport processes over most of the shelf, despite each cyclone only influencing a small portion of the shelf at a particular time. Overall, we identified 19 tropical cyclone events over the 14‐year period, which, despite accounting for less than 5% of time, were found to drive the majority of both the suspended sediment alongshore and seaward cross‐shore transport. The results revealed significant interannual variability of the tropical cyclone‐induced sediment dynamics with greater suspended transport during the three consecutive Ningaloo Niño years (2011–2013) where sea surface temperatures off northwestern Australia were anomalously warm with elevated tropical cyclone activity.

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The effects of tropical cyclone characteristics on the surface wave fields in Australia's North West region

Cited by 31 publications

References 48 publications

Tropical Cyclone‐Driven Sediment Dynamics Over the Australian North West Shelf

Tropical Cyclone‐Driven Sediment Dynamics Over the Australian North West Shelf

Response of a fringing reef coastline to the direct impact of a tropical cyclone

A Numerical Study of Tropical Cyclone‐Induced Sediment Dynamics on the Australian North West Shelf

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