Hindcasting Waves From Winds On The East Coast Of Canada

Since the discovery of hydrocarbon resources in apparently commercial quantities off the East Coast of Canada in the late nineteen seventies, the Marine Environmental Data Service (MEDS) has been involved in the development of design wave information for offshore structures. In the course of this work, MEDS has examined in detail all available sources of wave information for the Atlantic, including the SOWM and U.S. Corps of Engineers 20-year hindcasts. Extensive intercomparisons have been done between these various datasets and between the hindcasts and MEDS measured data from the Waverider program. As a result of the comparisons, it was found that further development of hindcasting techniques involving a kinematic analysis of the meteorological surface pressure charts was required.When these techniques were included, it was possible to hindcast waves from winds with improved accuracy. Information on the comparisons of the various wave datasets, including the hindcasts, are presented and discussed. The techniques new in use in MEDS are presented, and examples of their use are shown. The implications of utilizing various datasets and storm seIection criteria for extreme value analysis and the prediction of tong return period events is also discussed.