Modification of 32 years ECMWF wind field using QuikSCAT data for wave hindcasting in Iranian Seas

Hindcasting of long term wave characteristics is necessary for designing coastal and marine structures as well as other marine activities. For this purpose, numerical modeling is used for simulating the wave regime. Numerical wave modeling requires an accurate wind field with high temporal and spatial resolutions in a long period. In this paper, ECMWF wind field was firstly compared with QuikSCAT satellite measurements using wind roses. Despite the good agreement of dominant wind directions obtained from two wind sources in most locations, modification of ECMWF was performed for each component of the wind vector, separately for achieving more accurate wind field. Then, the modified ECMWF was utilized as numerical wave modeling input. Numerical wave model was SWAN and the models were calibrated and verified in each sea and the results show good consistency with the measured wave data.