WorldWaves is a global wave and wind climate package developed through EU and industry sponsorship over many years. The offshore data incorporates global hindcast and operational wave and wind data from ECMWF validated and calibrated with independent satellite and buoy data worldwide. These data, which comprise full directional wave spectra time series, are used as boundary conditions to the latest version of the SWAN model for calculation of nearshore wave climate parameter and spectral time series and statistics.
Computational grids and bathymetric data are easy to set up using the geographic interface and tools. WorldWaves is continually evolving with new data added every month, upgraded shallow water models and new features.
The WorldWaves methodology was in fact developed originally in the late 1980s as part of a large wave energy resource mapping project being performed by OCEANOR at that time for SOPAC in Fiji for a large swath of the South Pacific. The long-term buoy measurements being carried out were rather site specific and in order to be able to provide reliable resource data elsewhere the buoy data were combined with satellite-enhanced global wave model data and coastal wave models. This is essentially the methodology still used today, although the quality of the global wave model data are now considerably better.
Based on the WorldWaves global database, Fugro OCEANOR have created various high precision wave energy resource and variability maps. In this paper some of the peculiarities of the global wave energy climate are discussed. Further, areas worldwide
exhibiting a stable energy-rich wave climate are pinpointed as are areas with a favourable ratio of extreme to mean annual wave power density, a rough indicator of the economic potential of a site.
The package will also be demonstrated live on the Fugro stand at the conference exhibition.
