An improved second generation wave model

• Abstract: A numerical second-generation sea wave model (SG) is presented and applied to December 1992 events on Mediterranean Sea. The energy advection is performed using a semiLagrangian scheme. The wind sea is generated by surface wind data supplied by a global/limited area atmospheric model or global analysis. The source terms (generation, dissipation and nonlinear interactions) are tuned to fit the empirical Sanders' duration-limited growth curve. An angular relaxation scheme is used in changing wind direction situations by permitting that the energy migrates slowly toward the new wind direction. This is accomplished by a combination of the actual spectrum and that one built by a rapid directional relaxation. One-month SG run testing for December 1992 was performed for the Mediterranean Sea and compared with observational buoy data. Results show the model was able to hindcast unusual wave activity associated to few cyclones, which have affected the area. Comparison with WAM (Komen et. al., 1994) run for the same period presents similar results, which is very encouraging to apply this low computational cost sea wave model for hindcast studies.