A 40 Years Hindcast of Wind, Sea Level and Waves in European Waters

The paper describes the initial efforts in a project whose objective is to obtain a 40-year hindcast of wind, sea level and wave climatology for European waters. The 40-year global atmospheric re-analysis carried out by the National Centre for Environmental Prediction, Washington, USA (NCEP) and the National Centre for Atmospheric Research, Boulder, Colorado, USA (NCAR) will be used as forcing of limited area atmospheric models. The fine grid atmospheric fields will be used to force state-of-the-art wave models (WAM) and sea level models (HAMSOM and TELEMAC) in regional areas around Europe so as to produce climatic information on waves, sea levels, and currents in a very large extend of the European waters, including the Mediterranean, North East Atlantic and North Sea. The available satellite data, including wind, wave and sea-level data, will be collected and will be used to be compared with the hindcast results, so as to yield uncertainty measures related to the data. Statistical analysis of the produced atmospheric, sea level and wave hindcast and remote sensed data will be performed in order to provide information about the climatological trends in the European Waters and Coastal Seas.