A high-resolution wave hindcast off Santa Catarina (Brazil) for identifying wave climate variability

Evidence indicates that climate change is in fact occurring, but there are still uncertainties regarding its rates of development and patterns of variability. It has been shown that wave climates present alterations related to climate change, thus pointing to the need for a long-term assessment in regions all over the world. Therefore, this study seeks to analyze the wave climate in the oceanic region of Santa Catarina. Thirty-two years of wave climate were generated on a local grid by means of the Wavewatch III (WW3) model with 6km resolution for the Santa Catarina region, nested in the other two grids - global and regional. It was ascertained that the wave climate has been undergoing considerable changes over time and space. The significant height of the waves (Hs) presented a tendency to increase up to 0.37 cm.year(-1) on the northern section of the coast and of 0.15 cm.year(-1) in the southern section, while the peak direction (theta p) presented a variation in the clockwise direction. It was further found that the winter and the spring are the most energetic seasons. For the peak period of the waves (Tp) a gradual increase was found in the southwest/northeast direction and that the greatest average values occur in the fall and winter. (c) 2019 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.