Occurrence of pressure-forced meteotsunami events in the eastern Yellow Sea during 2010–2019

Abstract

Abstract. This study examined the occurrence of meteotsunamis in the eastern Yellow Sea and the conceptual framework of a monitoring/warning system. Using 1 min intervals of mean-sea-level pressure and sea-level observations from 89 meteorological stations and 16 tide gauges between 2010 and 2019, a total of 42 pressure-forced meteotsunami events were classified. Most meteotsunamis (71 %) displayed a distinct seasonal pattern occurring from March to June, and intense meteotsunamis typically occurred at harbor tide gauges. The occurrence characteristics of the meteotsunamis were examined to improve the meteotsunami monitoring/warning system. Air pressure disturbances with speeds of 11–26 m s−1 and NNW–SW directions were conducive to meteotsunami generation. Most meteotsunamis (88 %), as well as strong meteotsunamis with a wave height exceeding 40 cm (19 %), had dominant period bands of less than 30 min, containing the resonant periods of harbors in the eastern Yellow Sea. Thus, the eastern Yellow Sea is a harbor-meteotsunami-dominated environment, characterized by frequent meteotsunami occurrences and local amplification in multiple harbors. This study can provide practical guidance on operation periods, potential hot spots, and risk levels to monitoring/warning system operators in the eastern Yellow Sea.

High-frequency sea-level extremes: Global correlations to synoptic atmospheric patterns

“…Another application could be to quantify NSLOTT climates at global scales, which are still based on short-term (up to a decade) sea-level measurements at a minute timescale (e.g., Dusek et al, 2019;Kim et al, 2021;Williams et al, 2021). Through such an approach, Šepić et al ( 2016) provided a robust estimate of interannual variability and seasonal changes of meteotsunamis in the Balearic Islands.…”

“…At its beginnings, it was mainly focusing on explaining and describing the isolated destructive events causing coastal flooding, structural damages and/or human casualties. Following the advances made in global and systematic observational research, two review papers by Monserrat (1996, 1998) popularized the term meteotsunami at the end of the 1990s, but basin-wide and global climatology studies only started less than a decade ago ( Šepić et al, 2015a;Bechle et al, 2016;Vilibić and Šepić, 2017;Dusek et al, 2019;Kim et al, 2021).…”

Progress report on addressing meteotsunami risk in the eastern Yellow Sea

“…Amplification or interference near the coast could be a possible explanation for false alarms. Even if strong air pressure jumps propagate, the resultant meteotsunamis may not occur because of sudden wind gusts (Vilibić et al 2005, Linares et al 2016, tidal phases (Choi et al 2014), local bathymetry, and geometric features in shallow coastal waters (Ha et al 2014, Rabinovich 2020, Kim et al 2021b. These mechanisms can be accounted for by operating the atmosphere-ocean coupled model in the future.…”

“…The reported problems in the monitoring system can be addressed by (a) expanding the observation system based on marine forecast zone (figure 6), (b) adjusting the monitoring protocol, and (c) utilizing an atmosphereocean coupled model. Recently, we identified meteotsunami seasonality in the eastern Yellow Sea (Kim et al 2021b), based on historical records of pressureforced meteotsunami occurrences over the past decade (2010)(2011)(2012)(2013)(2014)(2015)(2016)(2017)(2018)(2019). More than 71% of the 42 meteotsunamis occurred during the spring to early summer (March-June) in the eastern Yellow Sea.…”

Improvements to the detection and analysis of external surges in the North Sea

“…They are further amplified by slopes in the ocean bed, especially the continental shelf (Dogan et al, 2021). Meteotsunamis have been identified around the world, for example in the Adriatic sea (Vilibić, 2008), the Japanese Coast (Kubota et al, 2021), the Yellow Sea (Kim et al, 2016;Kim et al, 2021) and the Gulf of Mexico (Olabarrieta et al, 2017). They have also occurred in the North Sea (Jong, 2004;Sibley et al, 2016) but can clearly be differentiated by their characteristics like period, amplitude and their effect on water levels.…”