Ga. Jacobs et al., COASTAL WAVE GENERATION IN THE BOHAI BAY AND PROPAGATION ALONG THE CHINESE COAST, Geophysical research letters, 25(6), 1998, pp. 777-780
The Bohai Bay and Yellow Sea experience sea surface height (SSH) chang
es of 20 cm and larger during wintertime northerly and southerly wind
bursts that have a time scale of a few days. These large SSH changes g
ive rise to coastal shelf waves that subsequently propagate southward
along the Chinese coast. Two models provide observations of these wave
s. The first one is a statistical model based on four years of TOPEX/P
OSEIDON altimeter SSH observations and Navy Operational Global Atmosph
eric Prediction System (NOGAPS) wind stress fields. The second model i
s a numerical model forced by the wind stress. The numerical model pro
vides an objective interpretation of the wind stress response based on
dynamical equations. The statistical model is based on observations w
ith a linear response to the wind forcing and thus complements the num
erical model. The observed waves closely resemble gravest mode shelf w
aves derived by analytical solutions.