Dynamical Downscaling of ERA5 Data on the North-Western Mediterranean Sea: From Atmosphere to High-Resolution Coastal Wave Climate

A 29-year wind/wave hindcast is produced over the Mediterranean Sea for period 1990–2018. The dataset obtained by downscaling ERA5 global atmospheric reanalyses, which provide initial and boundary conditions a numerical chain based on limited-area weather wave models: BOLAM, MOLOCH WaveWatch III (WW3) models. In WW3 computational domain, an unstructured mesh used. variable resolutions reach up to 500 m along coasts of Ligurian Tyrrhenian seas (Italy), main objects study. validated using observations from coastal stations buoys. wind validation provides velocity correlations between 0.45 0.76, while significant height are much higher—between 0.89 0.96. results also compared original low-resolution dataset, assimilated comparison shows that improves reliability, particularly in regions, especially with regard directions.