Variations in the Baltic Sea wave fields

Nat. Hazards Earth Syst. Sci.

Behrens²,

Tuomi³

et al. 2008

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 90%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Wave conditions in the Baltic Proper and in the Gulf of Finland during windstorm Gudrun

Nat. Hazards Earth Syst. Sci.

Behrens²,

Tuomi³

et al. 2008

“…9.16, left panel) contains either an elongated maximum . Note that a local maximum in the Arkona Basin is evidently caused by overestimation of the 10-m wind speeds from the geostrophic wind data (Augustin 2005;Tuomi et al 2011) or several local maxima in the eastern Baltic Proper (Jönsson et al 2003). A hindcast using geostrophic winds indicates another maximum to the south of Gotland .…”

Section: Long-term and Extreme Wave Propertiesmentioning

confidence: 98%

Recent Change—Sea Level and Wind Waves

Hünicke

Zorita

Regional Climate Studies

et al. 2015

This chapter describes observed changes in sea level and wind waves in the Baltic Sea basin over the past 200 years and the main climate drivers of this change. The datasets available for studying these are described in detail. Recent climate change and land uplift are causing changes in sea level. Relative sea level is falling by 8.2 mm year −1 in the Gulf of Bothnia and slightly rising in parts of the southern Baltic Sea. Absolute sea level (ASL) is rising by 1.3-1.8 mm year −1 , which is within the range of recent global estimates. The 30-year trends of

“…Most of similar attempts in the past cover relatively short periods of a few years (Paplińska, 1999(Paplińska, , 2001Jönsson et al, 2002) or concentrate on specific areas (Blomgren et al, 2001;Cieślikiewicz and Herman, 2002;Soomere, , 2005. A few results of longterm reconstructions of wave fields over the entire Baltic Sea have recently been reported in the international literature (Cieślikiewicz and Paplińska-Swerpel, 2008;Kriezi and Broman, 2008).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Long-term spatial variations in the Baltic Sea wave fields

Räämet

2011

Ocean Sci.

Abstract. This study focuses on spatial patterns in linear trends of numerically reconstructed basic wave properties (average and extreme wave heights, wave periods) in the Baltic Sea under the assumption of no ice cover. Numerical simulations of wave conditions for 1970-2007, using the WAM wave model and adjusted geostrophic winds, revealed extensive spatial variations in long-term changes in both average and extreme wave heights in the Baltic Sea but almost no changes in the basinwide wave activity and wave periods. There has been a statistically significant decrease in the annual mean significant wave height by more than 10% between the islands ofÖland and Gotland and in the southward sea area, and a substantial increase to the south-west of Bornholm, near the coast of Latvia, between theÅland Archipelago and the Swedish mainland, and between the Bothnian Sea and the Bothnian Bay. Variations in extreme wave heights (defined as the threshold for 1% of the highest waves each year) show similar patterns of changes. In several areas the trends in average and extreme wave heights are different. Such a complicated pattern of changes indicates that (i) different regions of the Baltic Sea basin have experienced widespread but essentially different changes in wind properties and (ii) many seemingly controversial trends and variations established in wave properties at different sites in the recent past may reflect the natural spatial variability in the Baltic Sea wave fields.