Abstract: The Bohai Bay coastal region is one of the worst seriously affected areas by the storm surge. In order to simulate the storm surge processes more accurately in this area, a coupled ocean-atmosphere model which combines weather research and forecasting (WRF) and regional ocean model system (ROMS) is proposed. The coupled model can be used to study the interaction between the atmosphere and the ocean under more realistic dynamic conditions. Real-time data exchange between the ocean model and the atmospheric model can be performed through an open-source coupler and a grid reconstruction program. Based on the coupled ocean-atmosphere model, a typical cold surge in Bohai Bay in mid-October 2003 is simulated and analyzed. The analysis indicates that the coupled ocean-atmosphere model could be well to simulate the variations of temperature field, wind field, tidal level and tidal current field during the cold surge affecting period. The strong cold air moves southward and the resulting northeast wind is the major force of the cold surge. It is mainly determined by the distribution characteristics of topography and coastline of the Bohai Bay. The combination of wind stress elevation caused by strong northeast wind and the astronomical tide can easily lead to a large storm surge, which brings a tremendous security risk to social economic status and public health.

Key words: storm surge, ocean-atmosphere coupling, Bohai Bay, numerical simulation