Influence of Natural Climate Variability and Projections of Extreme Wind Wave Climate in the Indian Ocean

Abstract

Extreme ocean wave heights are produced mainly by large increases in surface wind speeds, can impact many vulnerable coastal populations, navigation, marine operations, and cause destruction to coastal or offshore structures. Consequently, a better comprehension of extreme ocean wave height plays a significant role in climate-modeling studies and coastal zone management activities. The reliable knowledge of ocean wave energy (referred to as Wave Power, WP) as a renewable energy source is useful, owing to the lack of control over fossil-based fuels, both in terms of resource depletion and policy decisions made by various countries. Also, the spatial and temporal variations in ocean wave height and energy are induced by natural climate variabilities like El Niño Southern Oscillation (ENSO), Indian Ocean Dipole (IOD), Southern Annular Mode (SAM), Pacific Decadal Oscillation (PDO), and Atlantic Multidecadal Oscillation (AMO), etc. (Wang et al. 2003; Izaguirre et al. 2011; Reguero et al. 2015, 2019; Kumar et al. 2016, 2019; Patra et al. 2020). Such variations in ocean wave height and energy, as well as their impact, are continuing and expected to become more severe in the future (Mori et al. 2010). Moreover, regional-scale information of ocean waves has immense practical value in marine activities and the offshore industry. Therefore, the precise understanding of wave climate variables such as wave height, wind, WP, wave period, their impact, and future projections at the regional scale is of great importance for safe marine transport, offshore and coastal industrial operations and development, wave energy harnessing, assessment of future vulnerability to coastal disaster, and the wellbeing of growing coastal populations. newline