{"id":192129,"date":"2026-02-09T15:12:31","date_gmt":"2026-02-09T20:12:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/gso\/?p=192129"},"modified":"2026-02-09T15:12:32","modified_gmt":"2026-02-09T20:12:32","slug":"computer-simulations-show-strong-ocean-currents-reduce-size-of-surface-waves","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/gso\/uncategorized\/computer-simulations-show-strong-ocean-currents-reduce-size-of-surface-waves\/","title":{"rendered":"Computer simulations show strong ocean currents reduce size of surface waves"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

URI researchers determine how much hurricane-driven ocean currents modify surface waves and why it happens<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

February 9, 2026<\/h4>\n\n\n\n

Using advanced computer simulations, researchers from the URI GSO have concluded how and why strong ocean currents modify surface waves.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cOur primary finding is that hurricane-generated ocean currents can substantially reduce both the height and the dominant period of hurricane waves,\u201d said Isaac Ginis<\/a>, professor of oceanography. \u201cThe magnitude of wave reduction depends strongly on how accurately ocean currents are predicted. This highlights the importance of using fully coupled wave-ocean models when forecasting hurricane waves.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n

\n
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Researchers produced models to show how currents of varying strengths, moving in different directions impact surface waves.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

Ginis conducted the research with GSO Professor Tetsu Hara<\/a> and Angelos Papandreou, who earned his Ph.D. in oceanography from URI in December 2025. Their results were published in a peer-reviewed article in the Journal of Physical Oceanography<\/em><\/a> in January 2026.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

According to Ginis, waves are most strongly reduced by currents on the front right of the storm, where winds, waves and currents are typically strongest.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cOn the front-right side of a hurricane, storm-driven currents move in the same direction as the waves,\u201d said Ginis. \u201cThis causes the waves to travel more quickly through the high-wind region. Because the waves spend less time being energized by the wind, they do not grow as large as they otherwise would.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The team\u2019s computer simulations included hurricanes of different sizes, strengths, and forward speeds. Depending on the hurricane characteristics, the simulations revealed that the maximum significant wave height\u2014the average height of the highest one-third of waves\u2014can be reduced by 0.4-2.2 meters, or roughly 1-7 feet, and the dominant wave period can be shortened by about 0.3-1.5 seconds.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWhile wave height often gets the most attention, wave period is also a key factor in determining how waves affect offshore or nearshore structures, such as oil platforms,\u201d said Ginis.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The simulations required a powerful computer, so the researchers remotely accessed URI\u2019s high-performance computing nodes installed at the Massachusetts Green High Performance Computing Center in Holyoke, Massachusetts. URI formed a partnership with the computing center<\/a> in 2021.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ginis is hopeful that the team\u2019s research, which was funded by the National Oceanographic Partnership Program\/Office of Naval Research, will be adopted by weather services to more accurately predict waves during hurricanes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The professor will have an opportunity\u00a0to discuss potential operational implementation of the team\u2019s findings with NOAA scientists and hurricane forecasters at the American Meteorological Society Conference on Hurricanes and Tropical Meteorology<\/a> in San Diego on March 30.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThis work has strong potential for operational use because we use the same wave and ocean models\u2014WAVEWATCH III and MOM6\u2014that are already part of the National Weather Service\u2019s HAFS hurricane forecast system,\u201d said Ginis. \u201cOur findings could be incorporated without major changes to existing forecasting tools. Our group has a long history of working with NOAA scientists, and results from our previous studies have already been implemented in operational hurricane models.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

URI researchers determine how much hurricane-driven ocean currents modify surface waves and why it happens<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4762,"featured_media":192130,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[79,1],"tags":[572,575,2870],"class_list":["post-192129","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","category-uncategorized","tag-hurricanes","tag-isaac-ginis","tag-modeling"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/gso\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/192129","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/gso\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/gso\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/gso\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4762"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/gso\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=192129"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/gso\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/192129\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":192131,"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/gso\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/192129\/revisions\/192131"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/gso\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/192130"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/gso\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=192129"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/gso\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=192129"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/gso\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=192129"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}