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Wave model input files (ver. 2.0, November 2024)

Published by U.S. Geological Survey | Department of the Interior | Metadata Last Checked: January 27, 2026 | Last Modified: 2024-11-27T00:00:00Z
Provided here are the required input files to run a standalone wave model (Simulating Waves Nearshore [SWAN]; Booij and others, 1999) on eleven model domains from the Canada-U.S. border to Norton Sound, Alaska. The model runs create a downscaled wave database (DWDB) which, can be used to reconstruct hindcast, historical, or projected time series at each point in the model domains (see Engelstad and others, 2023 for further information on reconstruction of time-series). The model forcing files consist of reduced sets of binned wind and wave parameter combinations, hereafter termed ‘sea states’. The use of representative sea states allows for lower computational costs and follows modified methods outlined in for example Camus and others, 2011, Reguero and others, 2013, and Lucero and others, 2017. Wind and wave parameters were extracted from the ERA5 reanalysis (Hersbach and others, 2020; https://cds.climate.copernicus.eu/) for the hindcast period (1979–2019) and for the historical (1979-2014) and projected (2020-2050) time periods from WAVEWATCHIII wave model runs (Erikson and others, 2022) driven by winds and sea ice fields from the 6th generation Coupled Model Inter-comparison Projects (CMIP6 Haarsma and others, 2016 The extent of each model domain can be inferred from the browse graphic. Model input files are described in the Entity and Attribute Overview section.

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