Study of storm surge due to Typhoon Linda (1997) in the Gulf of Thailand using a three dimensional ocean model

Numerical integrations using the three dimensional ocean model based on the princeton ocean model (POM) were applied for the study of both sea level elevation and ocean circulation patterns forced by the wind fields during typhoons that moved over the Gulf of Thailand (GoT). The simulation concerned a case of Typhoon Linda which occurred during November 1–4, 1997. Typhoon Linda was one of the worst storms that passed the Gulf of Thailand and hit the southern coastal provinces of Thailand on November 3, 1997. It caused flooding and a strong wind covering large areas of agriculture and fisheries, which destroyed households, utilities and even human lives. The model is the time-dependent, primitive equation, Cartesian coordinates in a horizontal and sigma coordinate in the vertical. The model grid has 37 97 orthogonal curvilinear grid points in the horizontal, with variable spacing from 2 km near the head of the GoT to 55 km at the eastern boundary, with 10 sigma levels in the vertical conforming to a realistic bottom topography. Open boundary conditions are determined by using radiation conditions, and the sea surface elevation is prescribed from the archiving, validation and interpretation of satellite oceanographic data (AVISO). The initial condition is determined from the spin up phase of the first model run, which was executed by using wind stress calculated from climatological monthly mean wind, restoring-type surface heat and salt and climatological monthly mean freshwater flux. The model was run in spin up phase until an ocean model reached an equilibrium state under the applied force. A spatially variable wind field taken from the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts (ECMWF) is used to compute the wind stress directly from the velocity fluctuations. Comparison of tendency between the sea surface elevations frommodel and the observed significant wave heights of moored buoys in the Gulf of Thailand under Seawatch project is investigated. The model predicts the sea level elevation up to 68.5 cm at the Cha-Am area located in the north of where the typhoon strands to the shore. Results of sea level elevation show that there is an area of peak set-up in the upper gulf, particularly in the western coast, and the effects of the storm surge are small at the lower gulf. During the entire period of this study, the surge in the gulf was induced by the northeasterly wind blowing over it. 2011 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.