Reanalysis of past major storms in West Kyushu and Study of Wind-induced Currents in Ariake Sea <Articles>

It is a well-known fact that the reanalysis and accurate numerical simulation of wave climate, coastal currents induced by wind and storm surge simulation require apparently the realistic wind field with consideration of effects of complex land topography. The inland seas and a number of bays in Japan are in the category that needs the accurate wind field for such studies. The reproduction and reanalysis of the wind field, however, had been conducted simply by making spline interpolation of the observed data or by modeling with simple gradient wind typhoon model or by a planetary boundary layer model. Their results showed a deficit in their data qualities. Recently mesoscale meteorological model has been used for hindcast and forecast of atmosphere conditions taking into account of the complex terrain and the reproduction of wind field has been improved in its accuracy.

In this study, the mesoscale atmospheric model was used for the reanalysis of the 47 past storm and severe weather conditions including 42 typhoons focusing on West Kyushu, Japan since 1959. The results of reanalysis had been utilized for a database construction and studies of wind field characteristics in semi-closed Omura Bay. The reanalysis results were also used to study the characteristics of wind-induced currents in Ariake Sea which is very important in material transport under storm events.