Improvements of storm surge forecasting in the Gulf of Venice with scatterometer wind data: the ESA DUE eSurge-Venice project

The results of the re-analysis experiments conducted during the ESA eSurge-Venice project are presented and discussed. They were aimed to test the sensitivity in the Adriatic Sea of a storm surge model to a model wind forcing modified using scatterometer winds in order to reduce the differences between the statistics of the model winds and that of the scatterometer. Re-analysis experiments were also performed to test the response of the storm surge model to the assimilation, with a dual 4D-Var system, of satellite altimeter tracks as model errors of the initial state of the sea surface level. Remarkable improvements on the storm surge forecast have been obtained for what concerns the modified model wind forcing. Encouraging results have been obtained also in the assimilation experiments.