Investigation of the Effect of Space Varying Wind Input on Hydrodynamic Modeling in Manila Bay and Laguna Lake

Abstract

Abstract. Surface water currents and waves are largely driven by wind forcing by inducing shear stress to the water surface. The circulations formed carry with it various materials and pollutants all over a large body of water like the Manila Bay and Laguna Lake. Considering the spatial and temporal variability of wind over the Bay and the Lake is essential to model the hydrodynamics of water more accurately. This study simulated bay hydrodynamics using high resolution space- and time-varying wind data from Weather Research Forecasting (WRF) as input and compared the results with using uniform-directed wind. The downscaled winds from WRF demonstrated patterns in agreement with the country’s seasonal monsoon wind dynamics. Its effect on the bay hydrodynamics is more pronounced during the dry season as it changes the flow direction of water at the bay mouth. On the other hand, the hydrodynamic difference in circulation patterns for the lake was accentuated with a more defined clockwise gyre circulation during the wet season where prevailing winds are stronger. Thus, it is imperative to incorporate spatially varying wind input to accurately characterize the bay water movement. Results also showed that global weather inputs can be used in areas with scarce monitoring stations as long as they are validated.