A criterious hindcasting study of the South Atlantic Ocean wave field was made using the model WAVEWATCH III including tests to evaluate which numerical grid would provide the best configuration for the wind and other atmospherics forcing regarding the calibration of the respective fields. It was observed that the wind forcing values were slightly underestimated for speeds below 7.5 m/s and overestimated for speeds above this value for specific sites at Campos and Santos Basins (Brazil). Thus, it was proposed a small correction to compensate any trends in the wind forcing values for the region. The evaluation of resultant wave fields was made using extreme measured sea states at PETROBRAS platform P-25, northern Campos Basin. The comparison of measured and modeled values shows that the adjusted atmospherics forcing provided good results for both significant wave heights (Hs) as well as spectral peak periods (Tp). Although, it was observed that the modeled sea states tend to slightly underestimate the local sea component at the initial storm buildup when a second spectral peak is present. It was also observed that the used numerical grid tends not to capture very compact atmospheric systems due to poor resolution of such small scale features. On a general view, the results reproduce the wave field characteristics of the western South Atlantic Ocean.
WAVEWATCH III; waves; extreme sea states; measured waves; modeled waves
