The Wave Climate of Bass Strait and South-East Australia

A new paper is published in Ocean Modelling. The paper is entitled: "The wave climate of Bass Strait and South-East Australia".

Liu et al., 2022

A high-resolution third-generation wave model based on unstructured grids, WAVEWATCH III, was used to investigate the wave climate of Bass Strait and South-East Australia over the period 1981 to 2020. The model results are extensively validated against a network of coastal buoys and demonstrate that the model can capture the overall wave characteristics in this region. Analyses of model outputs across the 40-year period show that significant wave height has increased by approximately 5% and a slight counterclockwise rotation of peak wave direction has occurred with likely implications for coastal processes.

Seasonal variations show higher significant wave height in winter compared to summer, which is driven by dominant Southern Ocean swell. The peak wave direction in the eastern region shifts from south-westerly in winter to south-easterly in summer. In autumn and winter, there is a statistically significant correlation between wave conditions and the Southern Annular Mode. During these seasons, a southward movement of Southern Ocean low pressure systems is associated with increased significant wave height, an increase in the peak wave period and a counterclockwise rotation of the peak wave direction.

This publication was led by Jin Liu (The University of Melbourne, Victoria, Australia) and Daniel Ierodiaconou from our group contributed to the publication.

Congrats to all the authors and the DU Marine Mapping Group!

To read the full article, click here.

Last edited on the July 30th, 2022.