Study on the growth of wind wave frequency spectra generated by cold waves in the northern East China Sea

The growth of frequency spectra and spectral parameters of wind waves generated by cold waves, a kind of severe weather system, in the northern East China Sea is studied in this paper. Based on a third-generation wave action model (the Simulating WAves Nearshore model), simulations were developed to analyze the spatiotemporal characteristics of wind waves and to output spectral data. It is shown that the cold wave-induced spectra can be well described by the modified Joint North Sea Wave Project spectral form. The growth of wave spectra is comprehensively reflected by the evolution of the three characteristic parameters: peak frequency, spectral peak and wave energy. Besides, the approximations of dependences between spectral parameters and the three types of universal induced factors are obtained with the least squares method and compared systematically. Fetch and peak frequency turn out to be suitable parameters to describe the spectral parameters, while the dependences on the inverse wave age vary in different sea areas. In general, the derived relationships improve on results from previous studies for better practical application of the wind wave frequency spectrum in the northern East China Sea.