{"id":230842,"date":"2026-02-07T22:18:11","date_gmt":"2026-02-08T04:18:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/2026\/02\/computer-simulations-reveal-hurricane-currents-can-knock-down-surface-wave-heights"},"modified":"2026-02-07T22:18:11","modified_gmt":"2026-02-08T04:18:11","slug":"computer-simulations-reveal-hurricane-currents-can-knock-down-surface-wave-heights","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/2026\/02\/computer-simulations-reveal-hurricane-currents-can-knock-down-surface-wave-heights","title":{"rendered":"Computer simulations reveal hurricane currents can knock down surface wave heights"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a class=\"aligncenter blog-photo\" href=\"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog.images\/computer-simulations-reveal-hurricane-currents-can-knock-down-surface-wave-heights.jpg\"><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Using advanced computer simulations, researchers from the University of Rhode Island\u2019s Graduate School of Oceanography (GSO) have concluded how and why strong ocean currents modify surface waves. \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, URI 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<p>Ginis conducted the research with URI Professor Tetsu Hara and Angelos Papandreou, who earned his Ph.D. in oceanography from URI in December 2025. Their results were <a href=\"https:\/\/journals.ametsoc.org\/view\/journals\/phoc\/56\/2\/JPO-D-25-0137.1.xml\" target=\"_blank\">published<\/a> in a peer-reviewed article in the <i>Journal of Physical Oceanography<\/i> in January 2026.<\/p>\n<p>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","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Using advanced computer simulations, researchers from the University of Rhode Island\u2019s Graduate School of Oceanography (GSO) have concluded how and why strong ocean currents modify surface waves. \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, URI professor of oceanography. [\u2026]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":662,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[493,1523],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-230842","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-climatology","category-computing"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/230842","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/662"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=230842"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/230842\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=230842"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=230842"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=230842"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}