Generation and Propagation of Long Waves due to Spatial and Temporal Pressure Distributions

Abstract:

An abnormal wave event was observed between 23 and 27 June 2014 in the Mediterranean and Black Seas. First, sea level oscillations began in Ciutadella Inlet (Spain) after midnight of 22 June. The phenomena continued with observation of strong oscillations (up to 3 m wave height) in the Adriatic Sea, Mediterranean Sea and Black Sea on 25-26 June. Finally, at noon on 27 June on a calm and sunny day, the abnormal waves suddenly struck coasts of Odessa with 1-2 m wave height injuring a number of people. This tsunami-like event which is called meteotsunami is generated by different types of meteorological disturbances such as atmospheric gravity waves, pressure jumps and squall lines and the significant consequences necessitates the research to understand, model and simulate such events accurately. Thus, using the 2014 event as a case study, the waves generated by the change of atmospheric pressure distribution is studied. A static water level drop due to high atmospheric pressure in a region and rise due to low atmospheric pressure in another region deform the water level throughout the entire sea area. To compute the sea level change, the relation between the pressure difference and change of water level from normal position (ζ=0.99ΔP) is used where ζ is the change of water level (cm) according to the pressure difference from normal pressure ΔP. This relation gives that 1 hPa (1millibar) depression in air pressure from normal water level position (under 1000millibar) creates almost 1 cm rise in mean sea level. The respective small amplitude long waves propagate along the sea which is continuously excited by the spatial and temporal changes of atmospheric pressure. And, the amplification becomes important to understand the occurrence of unexpected water level changes, especially near the coastal zone. In this study, this long wave propagation due to water surface deformation is modelled by solving nonlinear shallow water equations. The model results are compared with the 2014 event observations.

This research partly supported by TUBITAK Grant number 213M534 and the European Union FP7/2007-2013 program n° 603839 (Project ASTARTE - Assessment, Strategy and Risk Reduction for Tsunamis in Europe).