Wind speeds over the world’s oceans have increased over the past two decades, as have wave heights. Studies of climate change typically consider measurements or predictions of temperature over extended periods of time. Climate, however, is much more than temperature. Over the oceans, changes in wind speed and the surface gravity waves generated by such winds play an important role. We used a 23-year database of calibrated and validated satellite altimeter measurements to investigate global changes in oceanic wind speed and wave height over this period. We find a general global trend of increasing values of wind speed and, to a lesser degree, wave height, over this period. The rate of increase is greater for extreme events as compared to the mean condition.

https://researchbank.swinburne.edu.au/file/bca43746-6f16-4ad2-a4b7-27f8d8d60fed/1/PDF (Published version).pdf

Global trends in wind speed and wave height over the past 25 years

Current status and future of ocean energy sources: A global review

Wave energy is substantial as a resource, and its potential to significantly contribute to the existing energy mix has been identified. However, the commercial utilization of wave energy is still very low. This paper reviewed the background of wave energy harvesting technology, its evolution, and the present status of the industry. By covering the theoretical formulations, wave resource characterization methods, hydrodynamics of wave interaction with the wave energy converter, and the power take-off and electrical systems, different challenges were identified and discussed. Solutions were suggested while discussing the challenges in order to increase awareness and investment in wave energy industry as a whole.

https://www.mdpi.com/1996-1073/11/5/1250/pdf

Ocean Wave Energy Converters: Status and Challenges

Based on the data on the current velocity, water temperature, salinity, turbidity and concentration of suspended sediment collected in November 2006 along three survey transects at three time-series, ship-based stations off the Huanghe (Yellow River) delta, and at twenty-four grid survey stations in the adjacent Bohai Sea, sediment transport off the Huanghe delta and in the adjacent Bohai Sea under winter regime were studied and compared with those from the summer season. The homogeneous distribution of salinity, temperature and sediment in the water column indicated a well-mixed body of water. A zone of high suspended sediment concentrations (SSC) >100 mg l −1 with a width of 35 km was identified along the delta coast. Two highest SSC centers were found in the surface and middle water layers around the abandoned Diaokou Huanghe river mouth and the present Huanghe river mouth, and the third one in the bottom layer around the abandoned Qingshuigou Huanghe river mouth. These three highest SSC centers become major sediment source areas in winter. Based on the location of the high bottom shear stress zone, the prevailing wave directions and the protuberant topography of the river mouths, we identified the resuspension origin of the three highest SSC centers caused mostly by the winter storm waves, partially by tidal currents. Suspended sediment flux (SSF) along the three coastal transects indicated that the sediment in the northwest part of the delta was transported northeastward and southeastward along the coast of the recent delta lobe. The SSC and SSF were higher in winter than summer by 1.7–27.1 and 2–122.5 times, respectively, except around the present river mouth. This indicates that the intensity of sediment transport in winter is much stronger than in summer due to the powerful effect of winter storms although the river water and sediment discharges to the sea were much greater in summer. The massive Huanghe sediment to the sea was accumulated in a narrow coastal area due to weak hydrodynamics in summer, and then strongly resuspended mostly by storm waves in winter and transported to the offshore area. The coastal area off the Huanghe delta acts as a sediment sink in summer and converted to be a sediment source in winter in response to the seasonal variation of the East Asian monsoon in this region. The erosion–accumulation pattern of the Huanghe subaqueous delta from 1976 to 2003 illustrates that river-laden sediment is deposited mainly in the southern part off the coastal area and it is also the result of intensive southward sediment transport in winter.

Bingchen Liang

Papers

Blended wind fields for wave modeling of tropical cyclones in the South China Sea and East China Sea

Modeling wave effects on storm surge and coastal inundation

Numerical modelling of the nearshore wave energy resources of Shandong peninsula, China

22-Year wave energy hindcast for the China East Adjacent Seas

An automated threshold selection method based on the characteristic of extrapolated significant wave heights