COASTAL WAVE GENERATION IN THE BOHAI BAY AND PROPAGATION ALONG THE CHINESE COAST

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.