Extreme Wind Waves on the Northeastern Shelf of the Black Sea

The purpose of this work is to investigate extreme storm waves in the coastal zone from the village of Volna (the Kerch Strait area) to Adler on the northeastern shelf of the Black Sea over a climatic time span. The main method of research is numerical modeling using the MIKE 21 SW spectral wave model. As a result of calculations, hourly fields of spatial distributions of key wave parameters are obtained for the entire Black Sea water area from January 1979 to December 2023, i.e., for the past 45 years. The analysis is conducted with respect to the separation of the wave field into two components: pure wind waves and swell. Research has revealed that, over the past 45 years, the northeastern coast of the Black Sea was affected by 41 storms with significant wave heights exceeding 5 m. Two November storms in 2007 and 2023 are distinguished by their extreme characteristics. The significant heights of mixed waves during the storms reached 9 m, and the energies exceeded 500 kW/m. The average heights of mixed storm waves for the entire coast vary within 4-6 m, and the average energies are around 150 kW/m. The highest waves develop in the areas of Anapa, Utrish, and Idokopas. The average values of the heights and energies of pure wind waves have a common tendency to decrease from the northwestern coast to the southeastern, while for swell, on the contrary, they tend to increase. Several relatively homogeneous segments in terms of the developing wind waves and swell are identified in the coastal zone. In the structure of average storm waves between the village of Volna and Anapa, wind waves absolutely dominate. Between Cape Myskhako and Idokopas, the contribution of wind waves to the total wave power exceeds the swell by a factor of 2-2.5. Between Arkhipo-Osipovka and Tuapse, the power of pure wind waves slightly surpasses the power of swell. Further, south of Tuapse, the contribution of swell becomes predominant. Two regions are distinguished in terms of the ratio of the contribution of wind waves and swell along the coast: in the vicinity of Anapa, the overall wave climate is almost fully determined by wind waves, while in Adler, by swell.