Experimental and numerical characterization of sea-state and coastal currents close to the Giglio island

The study of sub-mesoscale circulation phenomena in coastal areas is complicated by the high resolution requested for both the observation and the simulation of such currents, and by the difficulty of appropriately validating the remote sensing and the numerical data. In this work we present the results of a long period of waves and coastal currents observations, produced by the X-band radar that was implemented in 2012 at the Giglio Island, after the accident of the Costa Concordia ship. The radar installation has allowed to verify the structure of particular sea states and hydrodynamic phenomena that can be reproduced also by means of some numerical models implemented in the area: in particular, SWAN for waves prediction, and ROMS for coastal circulation . The models were configured through multiple nesting in order to reach resolutions comparable to coastal radar observations. The measurements have been validated independently through the use of drifters in experimental campaigns around the island.