Persistence Analysis of Observed Metocean Data in the Southwest Coast in Korea

Abstract

The persistence analysis of marine physical environment factors is a basic analysis that must precede the use of sea areas as an analysis required in the coastal engineering such as downtime and design. In this study, the persistence analysis was implemented for wind speed and significant wave height data from four observation points of Deokjeokdo, Oeyeondo, Geomundo, and Geojedo among the marine meteorological observation buoys of the Korea Meteorological Administration. The persistence time means the consecutive time of observation data beyond specific level. The threshold wind speed and significant wave height were set in the range of 1~15 m/s and the range of 0.25~3.0 m, respectively. Then, the persistence time was extracted. As a result of the analysis, the persistence time of wind speed and significant wave height decreased rapidly as the reference value increased. The median persistence times under the maximum reference thresholds were assessed as a maximum of 5 hours for wind speed and a maximum of 8 hours for significant wave height. When the reference wind speed and significant wave height were 15 m/s and 3 m, respectively, the persistence time that could occur with a 1% probability were 52 and 56 hours. This study can be expanded to all coastal areas in Korea, and it is expected that various engineering applications by performing a persistence analysis of the metocean data.