Kim, T.R. and Lee, J.H., 2018. Comparison of High Wave Hindcasts during Typhoon Bolaven (1215) using SWAN and WW3 model. In: Shim, J.-S.; Chun, I., and Lim, H.S. (eds.), Proceedings from the International Coastal Symposium (ICS) 2018 (Busan, Republic of Korea). Journal of Coastal Research, Special Issue No. 85, pp. 1096–1100. Coconut Creek (Florida), ISSN 0749-0208.

Typhoon Bolaven (1215) passed through the East China Sea and the Yellow Sea in August 2012 and generated extraordinarily high waves. During the typhoon, the maximum wind velocity and central pressure reached 53 m/sec and 920 hPa, respectively, and its strong wind radius was almost 500 km covering the South Sea of Korea as well as Korean Peninsula. Based on the data observed at the Ieodo Ocean Research Station, the significant wave height was 10.75 m and wind velocity reached to 35.42 m/sec, which were the highest records during 10 years between 2006 and 2016. Because of its large scale and severe damages to the port, several investigations on Typhoon Bolaven have been done using numerical wave models. However, different input data for forcing terms and different models made it difficult to compare the results as well as to clarify the cause of high waves.

This paper compares wave information calculated by SWAN and WAVEWATCH III during Typhoon Bolaven using same input data for forcing terms and grids. For wind data, parametric wind fields calculated by Holland (1980) and RDAPS/UM wind data were used, and same unstructured grid system was adopted for both models. Comparison and analysis of wave information calculated by two wave models with same input data and grids were carried out using observed data at ocean tower station and buoys. These results will contribute to establish wave prediction system for coastal waters of Korea by providing references for input data and grid system for wave model.