A hybrid model for numerical wave forecasting and its implementation——Ⅰ. The wind wave model

The authors make an endeavor to explain why a new hybrid wave model is here proposed when several such models have already been in operation and the so-called third generation wave model is proving attractive. This part of the paper is devoted to the wind wave model. Both deep and shallow water models have been developed, the former being actually a special case of the latter when water depth is great. The deep water model is exceptionally simple in form. Significant wave height is the only prognostic variable. In comparison with the usual methods to compute the energy input and dissipations empirically or by "tuning", the proposed model has the merit that the effects of all source terms are combined into one term which is computed through empirical growth relations for significant waves, these relations being, relatively speaking, easier and more reliable to obtain than those for the source terms in the spectral energy balance equation. The discrete part of the model and the implementation of the model as a whole will be discussed in the second part of the present paper.