Wave Climate of the Black Sea’s Coastal Waters During the Last Three Decades

Abstract

This study is focused on the alterations and typical features of the wind wave climate of the Black Sea’s coastal waters since 1979 till nowadays. Wind wave parameters were calculated by means of the 3rd-generation numerical spectral wind wave model SWAN, which is widely used on various spatial scales – both coastal waters and open seas. Data on wind speed and direction from the NCEP CFSR reanalysis were used as forcing. The computations were performed on an unstructured computational grid with cell size depending on the distance from the shoreline. Modeling results were applied to evaluate the main characteristics of the wind wave in various coastal areas of the sea.