Exploitable wave energy assessment based on ERA-Interim reanalysis data—A case study in the East China Sea and the South China Sea

Wave energy resources assessment is a very important process before the exploitation and utilization of the wave energy. At present, the existing wave energy assessment is focused on theoretical wave energy conditions for interesting areas. While the evaluation for exploitable wave energy conditions is scarcely ever performed. Generally speaking, the wave energy are non-exploitable under a high sea state and a lower sea state which must be ignored when assessing wave energy. Aiming at this situation, a case study of the East China Sea and the South China Sea is performed. First, a division basis between the theoretical wave energy and the exploitable wave energy is studied. Next, based on recent 20 a ERA-Interim wave field data, some indexes including the spatial and temporal distribution of wave power density, a wave energy exploitable ratio, a wave energy level, a wave energy stability, a total wave energy density, the seasonal variation of the total wave energy and a high sea condition frequency are calculated. And then the theoretical wave energy and the exploitable wave energy are compared each other; the distributions of the exploitable wave energy are assessed and a regional division for exploitable wave energy resources is carried out; the influence of the high sea state is evaluated. The results show that considering collapsing force of the high sea state and the utilization efficiency for wave energy, it is determined that the energy by wave with a significant wave height being not less 1 m or not greater than 4 m is the exploitable wave energy. Compared with the theoretical wave energy, the average wave power density, energy level, total wave energy density and total wave energy of the exploitable wave energy decrease obviously and the stability enhances somewhat. Pronounced differences between the theoretical wave energy and the exploitable wave energy are present. In the East China Sea and the South China Sea, the areas of an abundant and stable exploitable wave energy are primarily located in the north-central part of the South China Sea, the Luzon Strait, east of Taiwan, China and north of Ryukyu Islands; annual average exploitable wave power density values in these areas are approximately 10-15 kW/m; the exploitable coefficient of variation （COV） and seasonal variation （SV） values in these areas are less than 1.2 and 1, respectively. Some coastal areas of the Beibu Gulf, the Changjiang Estuary, the Hangzhou Bay and the Zhujiang Estuary are the poor areas of the wave energy. The areas of the high wave energy exploitable ratio is primarily in nearshore waters. The influence of the high sea state for the wave energy in nearshore waters is less than that in offshore waters. In the areas of the abundant wave energy, the influence of the high sea state for the wave energy is prominent and the utilization of wave energy is relatively difficult. The developed evaluation method may give some references for an exploitable wave energy assessment and is valuable for practical applications.

Separation of P. and SV-wavefields from multi-componen seismic data

In multi-component seismic exploration, the horizontal and vertical components both contain P- and SV-waves. The P- and SV-wavefields in a seismic record can be separated by their horizontal and vertical displacements when upgoing P- and SV-waves arrive at the sea floor. If the sea floor P wave velocity, S wave velocity, and density are known, the separation can be achieved in ther-p domain. The separated wavefields are then transformed to the time domain. A method of separating P- and SV-wavefields is presented in this paper and used to effectively separate P- and SV-wavefields in synthetic and real data. The application to real data shows that this method is feasible and effective. It also can be used for free surface data.

A wave energy resource assessment in the China's seas based on multi-satellite merged radar altimeter data

Wave energy resources are abundant in both offshore and nearshore areas of the China＇s seas. A reliable assessment of the wave energy resources must be performed before they can be exploited. First, for a water depth in offshore waters of China, a parameterized wave power density model that considers the effects of the water depth is introduced to improve the calculating accuracy of the wave power density. Second, wave heights and wind speeds on the surface of the China＇s seas are retrieved from an AVISO multi-satellite altim-eter data set for the period from 2009 to 2013. Three mean wave period inversion models are developed and used to calculate the wave energy period. Third, a practical application value for developing the wave energy is analyzed based on buoy data. Finally, the wave power density is then calculated using the wave field data. Using the distribution of wave power density, the energy level frequency, the time variability indexes, the to-tal wave energy and the distribution of total wave energy density according to a wave state, the offshore wave energy in the China＇s seas is assessed. The results show that the areas of abundant and stable wave energy are primarily located in the north-central part of the South China Sea, the Luzon Strait, southeast of Taiwan in the China＇s seas; the wave power density values in these areas are approximately 14.0–18.5 kW/m. The wave energy in the China’s seas presents obvious seasonal variations and optimal seasons for a wave energy utilization are in winter and autumn. Except for very coastal waters, in other sea areas in the China＇s seas, the energy is primarily from the wave state with 0.5 m≤Hs≤4 m, 4 s≤Te≤10 s whereHs is a significant wave height andTe is an energy period; within this wave state, the wave energy accounts for 80% above of the total wave energy. This characteristic is advantageous to designing wave energy convertors （WECs）. The practical application value of the wave energy is higher which can be as an effective supplement for an energy con-sumption in some areas. The above results are consistent with the wave model which indicates fully that this new microwave remote sensing method altimeter is effective and feasible for the wave energy assessment.

Comparison of wind data from ERA-Interim and buoys in the Yellow and East China Seas

We compared data of sea surface wind from the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts Interim Reanalysis(ERA-Interim) with that collected from eight buoys deployed in the Yellow and East China seas.The buoy data covered a period from 2010 to 2011,during which the longest time series without missing data extended for 329 days.Results show that the ERA-Interim wind data agree well with the buoy data.The regression coefficients between the ERA-Interim and observed wind speed and direction are greater than 0.7 and 0.79,respectively.However,the ERA-Interim wind data overestimate wind speed at most of the buoy stations,for which the largest bias is 1.8 m/s.Moreover,it is found from scatter plots of wind direction that about 13%of the ERA-Interim wind data can be classified as bad for wind speeds below6 m/s.Overall,the ERA-Interim data forecast both the wind speed and direction well,although they are not very representative of our observations,especially those where the wind speed is below 6 m/s.

Estimation of Extreme Coastal Wave Heightsfrom Time Series of Wave Data

A method is presented to extrapolate a time series of wave data to extreme wave heights. The 15-year time series of deepwater wave data collected for 34 min every hour from 1988 to 2002 in the South Pacific Ocean, Australia, is analyzed to generate a set of storm peak wave heights by use of the Peaks-Over-Threshold method. The probability distribution is calculated by grouping the observod storm peak wave heights into a number of wave height classes and assigning a probability to each wave height class. The observed probability distribution is then fitted to eight different probability distribution functions and found to be fitted best by the Weibull distribution （a = 1.17）, nearly best by the FT-Ⅰ, quite well by the exponential, and poorly by the lognormal function based on the criterion of the sum of squares of the errors, SSE （H）. The effect of the threshold wave height on the estimated extreme wave height is also studied and is found insignificant in this study. The 95 % prediction intervals of the best-fit FT-Ⅰ , exponential and Weibull functions are also derived.

Analysis of the Global Swell Distributions Using ECMWF Re-Analyses Wind Wave Data

The existence of three well-defined tongue-shaped zones of swell dominance,termed as 'swell pools',in the Pacific,the Atlantic and the Indian Oceans,was reported by Chen et al.(2002)using satellite data.In this paper,the ECMWF Re-analyses wind wave data,including wind speed,significant wave height,averaged wave period and direction,are applied to verify the existence of these swell pools.The swell indices calculated from wave height,wave age and correlation coefficient are used to identify swell events.The wave age swell index can be more appropriately related to physical processes compared to the other two swell indices.Based on the ECMWF data the swell pools in the Pacific and the Atlantic Oceans are confirmed,but the expected swell pool in the Indian Ocean is not pronounced.The seasonal variations of global and hemispherical swell indices are investigated,and the argument that swells in the pools seemed to originate mostly from the winter hemisphere is supported by the seasonal variation of the averaged wave direction.The northward bending of the swell pools in the Pacific and the Atlantic Oceans in summer is not revealed by the ECMWF data.The swell pool in the Indian Ocean and the summer northward bending of the swell pools in the Pacific and the Atlan-tic Oceans need to be further verified by other datasets.

Study on wave energy resource assessing method based on altimeter data——A case study in Northwest Pacific

Wave energy resource is a very important ocean renewable energy. A reliable assessment of wave energy resources must be performed before they can be exploited. Compared with wave model, altimeter can provide more accurate in situ observations for ocean wave which can be as a novel method for wave energy assessment.The advantage of altimeter data is to provide accurate significant wave height observations for wave. In order to develop characteristic and advantage of altimeter data and apply altimeter data to wave energy assessment, in this study, we established an assessing method for wave energy in local sea area which is dedicated to altimeter data.This method includes three parts including data selection and processing, establishment of evaluation indexes system and criterion of regional division. Then a case study of Northwest Pacific was performed to discuss specific application for this method. The results show that assessing method in this paper can assess reserves and temporal and spatial distribution effectively and provide scientific references for the siting of wave power plants and the design of wave energy convertors.

Below the Data Range Prediction of Soft Computing Wave Reflection of Semicircular Breakwater

Coastal defenses such as the breakwaters are important structures to maintain the navigation conditions in a harbor.The estimation of their hydrodynamic characteristics is conventionally done using physical models,subjecting to higher costs and prolonged procedures.Soft computing methods prove to be useful tools,in cases where the data availability from physical models is limited.The present paper employs adaptive neuro-fuzzy inference system(ANFIS)and artificial neural network(ANN)models to the data obtained from physical model studies to develop a novel methodology to predict the reflection coefficient(Kr)of seaside perforated semicircular breakwaters under low wave heights,for which no physical model data is available.The prediction was done using the input parameters viz.,incident wave height(Hi),wave period(T),center-to-center spacing of perforations(S),diameter of perforations(D),radius of semicircular caisson(R),water depth(d),and semicircular breakwater structure height(hs).The study shows the prediction below the available data range of wave heights is possible by ANFIS and ANN models.However,the ANFIS performed better with R^2=0.9775 and the error reduced in comparison with the ANN model with R2=0.9751.Study includes conventional data segregation and prediction using ANN and ANFIS.

Separation of up-going and down-going wave fields of vertical cable data

The vertical cable method for acquiring and processing pre-stack 3-D marine seismic data is based on the technology developed by the US Navy for antisubmarine warfare. In order to achieve the maximum utili- zation of vertical cable field data, a new separation method of the up-going and down-going wave fields of the vertical cable data processing was developed in this paper, which is different from the separation of the down-going and up-going wave fields of normal VSP data processing. In tests with synthetic modeling data and actual field data, this newly developed method performs well and is also computationally simpler without pre-assumption conditions.

Applicability evaluation of ERA5 wind and wave reanalysis data in the South China Sea

Wind and wave data are essential in climatological and engineering design applications.In this study,data from 15 buoys located throughout the South China Sea(SCS)were used to evaluate the ERA5 wind and wave data.Applicability assessment are beneficial for gaining insight into the reliability of the ERA5 data in the SCS.The bias range between the ERA5 and observed wind-speed data was-0.78-0.99 m/s.The result indicates that,while the ERA5 wind-speed data underestimation was dominate,the overestimation of such data existed as well.Additionally,the ERA5 data underestimated annual maximum wind-speed by up to 38%,with a correlation coefficient>0.87.The bias between the ERA5 and observed significant wave height(SWH)data varied from-0.24 to 0.28 m.And the ERA5 data showed positive SWH bias,which implied a general underestimation at all locations,except those in the Beibu Gulf and centralwestern SCS,where overestimation was observed.Under extreme conditions,annual maximum SWH in the ERA5 data was underestimated by up to 30%.The correlation coefficients between the ERA5 and observed SWH data at all locations were greater than 0.92,except in the central-western SCS(0.84).The bias between the ERA5 and observed mean wave period(MWP)data varied from-0.74 to 0.57 s.The ERA5 data showed negative MWP biases implying a general overestimation at all locations,except for B1(the Beibu Gulf)and B7(the northeastern SCS),where underestimation was observed.The correlation coefficient between the ERA5 and observed MWP data in the Beibu Gulf was the smallest(0.56),and those of other locations fluctuated within a narrow range from 0.82 to 0.90.The intercomparison indicates that during the analyzed time-span,the ERA5 data generally underestimated wind-speed and SWH,but overestimated MWP.Under non-extreme conditions,the ERA5 wind-speed and SWH data can be used with confidence in most regions of the SCS,except in the central-western SCS.

A temporal sliding procedure for ocean wave variational data assimilation and its application

For sequential performance of wave variational data assimilation, we proposed a temporal sliding method in which the temporal overlap is considered. The advantage of this method is that the initial wave spectrum of the optimization process is modified by the observations in latter and former times. This temporal sliding procedure is important for marginal region, such as the China seas, where the duration of assimilation effectiveness is 2-3 days. Experiments were performed in the whole course of Cyclone 9403 （Russ）. Around the cyclone center, the maximum value of wave elements did not change much by assimilation, because the extreme value was determined by wind energy input that was not yet optimized. In the area outside the cyclone center, this modification is evident especially for wind wave growth.

Validation and application of multi-source altimeter wave data in China＇s offshore areas

Studies of offshore wave climate based on satellite altimeter significant wave height（SWH） have widespread application value. This study used a calibrated multi-altimeter SWH dataset to investigate the wave climate characteristics in the offshore areas of China. First, the SWH measurements from 28 buoys located in China＇s coastal seas were compared with an Ifremer calibrated altimeter SWH dataset. Although the altimeter dataset tended to slightly overestimate SWH, it was in good agreement with the in situ data in general. The correlation coefficient was 0.97 and the root-mean-square（RMS） of differences was 0.30 m. The validation results showed a slight difference in different areas. The correlation coefficient was the maximum（0.97） and the RMS difference was the minimum（0.28 m） in the area from the East China Sea to the north of the South China Sea.The correlation coefficient of approximately 0.95 was relatively low in the seas off the Changjiang（Yangtze River） Estuary. The RMS difference was the maximum（0.32 m） in the seas off the Changjiang Estuary and was0.30 m in the Bohai Sea and the Yellow Sea. Based on the above evidence, it is confirmed that the multialtimeter wave data are reliable in China＇s offshore areas. Then, the characteristics of the wave field, including the frequency of huge waves and the multi-year return SWH in China＇s offshore seas were analyzed using the23-year altimeter wave dataset. The 23-year mean SWH generally ranged from 0.6-2.2 m. The greatest SWH appeared in the southeast of the China East Sea, the Taiwan Strait and the northeast of the South China Sea.Obvious seasonal variation of SWH was found in most areas; SWH was greater in winter and autumn than in summer and spring. Extreme waves greater than 4 m in height mainly occurred in the following areas： the southeast of the East China Sea, the south of the Ryukyu Islands, the east of Taiwan-Luzon Island, and the Dongsha Islands extending to the Zhongsha Islands, and the frequency of extreme waves was 3%-6%. Extreme waves occurred most frequently in autumn and rarely in spring. The 100-year return wave height was greatest from the northwest Pacific seas extending to southeast of the Ryukyu Islands（9-12 m）, and the northeast of the South China Sea and the East China Sea had the second largest wave heights（7-11 m）. For inshore areas, the100-year return wave height was the greatest in the waters off the east coast of Guangdong Province and the south coast of Zhejiang Province（7-8 m）, whereas it was at a minimum in the area from the Changjiang Estuary to the Bohai Sea（4-6 m）. An investigation of sampling effects indicates that when using the 1°×1°grid dataset, although the combination of nine altimeters obviously enhanced the time and space coverage of sampling, the accuracy of statistical results, particularly extreme values obtained from the dataset, still suffered from undersampling problems because the time sampling percent in each 1°×1°grid cell was always less than33%.

Plane wave fitting of the internal tidal sea-surface height signatures extracted from the TOPEX/Poseidon altimeter data along satellite tracks

The sea-surface height （SSH） signatures of internal tides extracted from the TOPEX/Poseidon （T/P） altimeter data along satellite tracks are fitted with superposition of several plane waves which have different wavenumber vectors. The key problem of plane wave fitting with iterative method is how to determine the initial value of wavenumber of each plane wave. The previous solving method is to analyze the internal tidal SSH signatures along each track with wavenumber spectrum. But it is found that the problem cannot be solved completely with the wavenumber spectrum analysis method only. The method based on the combination of wavenumber spectrum analysis method and the exhaustive method is proposed to determine the initial values of wavenumbers for iteration. Numerical results indicate that the proposed method is not only reasonable and feasible but also better than the previous method. The proposed method is an improvement of the previous one, which is beneficial to improving the precision of plane wave fitting of the T/P internal tidal SSH signatures and deepening the understanding of the internal tides in ocean.

Forward modeling of ocean-bottom cable data and wave-mode separation in fluid–solid elastic media with irregular seabed

In marine seismic exploration, ocean-bottom cable techniques accurately record the multicomponent seismic wavefield; however, the seismic wave propagation in fluid–solid media cannot be simulated by a single wave equation. In addition, when the seabed interface is irregular, traditional finite-difference schemes cannot simulate the seismic wave propagation across the irregular seabed interface. Therefore, an acoustic–elastic forward modeling and vector-based P-and S-wave separation method is proposed. In this method, we divide the fluid–solid elastic media with irregular interface into orthogonal grids and map the irregular interface in the Cartesian coordinates system into a horizontal interface in the curvilinear coordinates system of the computational domain using coordinates transformation. The acoustic and elastic wave equations in the curvilinear coordinates system are applied to the fluid and solid medium, respectively. At the irregular interface, the two equations are combined into an acoustic–elastic equation in the curvilinear coordinates system. We next introduce a full staggered-grid scheme to improve the stability of the numerical simulation. Thus, separate P-and S-wave equations in the curvilinear coordinates system are derived to realize the P-and S-wave separation method.

Wave steepness retrieved from scatterometer data in a genetic algorithm

Wave steepness is an important characteristic of a high sea state, and is widely applied on wave propagations at ports, ships, offshore platforms, and CO2 circulation in the ocean. Obtaining wave steepness is a difficult task that depends heavily on theoretical research on wavelength distribution and direct observations. Development of remote-sensing techniques provides new opportunities to study wave steepness. At present, two formulas are proposed to estimate wave steepness from QuikSCAT and ERS-1/2 scatterometer data. We found that wave steepness retrieving is not affected by radar band, and polarization method, and that relationship of wave steepness with radar backscattering cross section is similar to that with wind. Therefore, we adopted and modified a genetic algorithm for relating wave steepness with radar backscattering cross section. Results show that the root-mean-square error of the wave steepness retrieved is 0.005 in two cases from ERS-1/2 scatterometer data and from QuikSCAT scatterometer data.

Application of Newtonian approximate model to LIGO gravitational wave data processing

With the observation of a series of ground-based laser interferometer gravitational wave(GW)detectors such as LIGO and Virgo,nearly 100 GW events have been detected successively.At present,all detected GW events are generated by the mergers of compact binary systems and are identified through the data processing of matched filtering.Based on matched filtering,we use the GW waveform of the Newtonian approximate(NA)model constructed by linearized theory to match the events detected by LIGO and injections to determine the coalescence time and utilize the frequency curve for data fitting to estimate the parameters of the chirp masses of binary black holes(BBHs).The average chirp mass of our results is 22.05_(-6.31)^(+6.31)M_(⊙),which is very close to 23.80_(-3.52)^(+4.83)M_(⊙)provided by GWOSC.In the process,we can analyze LIGO GW events and estimate the chirp masses of the BBHs.This work presents the feasibility and accuracy of the low-order approximate model and data fitting in the application of GW data processing.It is beneficial for further data processing and has certain research value for the preliminary application of GW data.

Global Statistical Study of Ionospheric Waves Based on COSMIC GPS Radio Occultation Data

Extracting and parameterizing ionospheric waves globally and statistically is a longstanding problem. Based on the multichannel maximum entropy method（MMEM） used for studying ionospheric waves by previous work, we calculate the parameters of ionospheric waves by applying the MMEM to numerously temporally approximate and spatially close global-positioning-system radio occultation total electron content profile triples provided by the unique clustered satellites flight between years 2006 and 2007 right after the constellation observing system for meteorology, ionosphere, and climate（COSMIC） mission launch. The results show that the amplitude of ionospheric waves increases at the low and high latitudes（~0.15 TECU） and decreases in the mid-latitudes（~0.05 TECU）. The vertical wavelength of the ionospheric waves increases in the mid-latitudes（e.g., ~50 km at altitudes of 200–250 km） and decreases at the low and high latitudes（e.g., ~35 km at altitudes of 200–250 km）.The horizontal wavelength shows a similar result（e.g., ~1400 km in the mid-latitudes and ~800 km at the low and high latitudes）.

Performance of a data-driven technique applied to changes in wave height and its effect on beach response

In this study the medium-term response of beach profiles was investigated at two sites： a gently sloping sandy beach and a steeper mixed sand and gravel beach. The former is the Duck site in North Carolina, on the east coast of the USA, which is exposed to Atlantic Ocean swells and storm waves, and the latter is the Milford-on-Sea site at Christchurch Bay, on the south coast of England, which is partially sheltered from Atlantic swells but has a directionally bimodal wave exposure. The data sets comprise detailed bathymetric surveys of beach profiles covering a period of more than 25 years for the Duck site and over 18 years for the Milford-on-Sea site. The structure of the data sets and the data-driven methods are described. Canonical correlation analysis （CCA） was used to find linkages between the wave characteristics and beach profiles. The sensitivity of the linkages was investigated by deploying a wave height threshold to filter out the smaller waves incrementally. The results of the analysis indicate that, for the gently sloping sandy beach, waves of all heights are important to the morphological response. For the mixed sand and gravel beach, filtering the smaller waves improves the statistical fit and it suggests that low-height waves do not play a primary role in the medium-term morohological resoonse, which is primarily driven by the intermittent larger storm waves.

Effect of trigger system on experimental dispersion characteristics of active surface wave testing

A trigger system is typically employed in active seismic testing to trigger and synchronize multichannel surface wave data acquisition.The effect of the trigger system on the dispersion image of surface waves is empirically known to be negligible,however,theoretical explanation regarding the effect of the trigger system is insufficient.This study systematically examines the theory for surface wave dispersion analysis and proves that the effect of the trigger system on a dispersion image is negligible via a solid theoretical explanation.Subsequently,based on the new theoretical explanation,an alternative method that uses only the relative phase difference between sensors to extract dispersion characteristics with better conceptual clarity is proposed.Two active surface wave testing cases are considered to validate the theory and method.The results indicate that(1)an accurate trigger system is not necessary for surface wave data acquisition,and(2)it is unnecessary to assume that the impact point is the generation point of the surface waves for the experimental dispersion analysis.

Observation and Analysis of VLF Nocturnal Multimode Interference Phenomenon based on Waveguide Mode Theory

Very low frequency(VLF)signals are propagated between the ground-ionosphere.Multimode interference will cause the phase to show oscillatory changes with distance while propagating at night,leading to abnormalities in the received VLF signal.This study uses the VLF signal received in Qingdao City,Shandong Province,from the Russian Alpha navigation system to explore the multimode interference problem of VLF signal propagation.The characteristics of the effect of multimode interference phenomena on the phase are analyzed according to the variation of the phase of the VLF signal.However,the phase of VLF signals will also be affected by the X-ray and energetic particles that are released during the eruption of solar flares,therefore the two phenomena are studied in this work.It is concluded that the X-ray will not affect the phase of VLF signals at night,but the energetic particles will affect the phase change,and the influence of energetic particles should be excluded in the study of multimode interference phenomena.Using VLF signals for navigation positioning in degraded or unavailable GPS conditions is of great practical significance for VLF navigation systems as it can avoid the influence of multimode interference and improve positioning accuracy.