Wave Modeling with Data Assimilation to Support the Navigation in the Black Sea Close to the Romanian Ports

The objective of the present work is to develop a reliable wave prediction system, based on numerical models, in the Black Sea in order to support the navigation and the harbor operations in the Romanian nearshore. This system focuses, in a multilevel computational scheme, on the Romanian coastal environment. The SWAN model was implemented and calibrated for the entire sea basin against satellite data. Nevertheless, in some particular cases, as for example the extreme storm conditions, the numerical predictions might be less accurate and such behavior is sometimes even more accentuated in the sea environment than in the ocean. For these reasons, data assimilation techniques are considered to combine the measured wave parameters with those predicted by the numerical models in order to derive better estimations of the sea states. In the present work, the wave measurements from the Gloria drilling unit have been considered for the assimilation procedure. A scheme based on the successive corrections method has been implemented to perform the assimilation in both the geographical and spectral spaces. In this way, the model predictions in the Romanian nearshore are improved and the wave modeling system developed can provide a better real time support to coastal navigation and harbor operations. Finally, the extension of this scheme to the forecast products is also considered.