A Rip Current Warning System Based on Real-Time Observations for Haeundae Beach, Korea

Abstract

A real-time rip current warning system was studied to help mitigate against rip current accidents at Haeundae Beach. The system produces a real time sequence of index representing the risk and the likelihood of rip current based on the real time observations such as waves, currents, and tide. The index is estimated by using the rip current likelihoods derived from the results of various numerical simulations with various sea conditions, the parameters of which correspond to the observation quantities. The rip current warning system is operated by taking into account the effect of wave height, wave period, wave direction, wave spectrum (i.e., frequency-directional spreading), longshore currents, and tidal elevation on the rip current likelihood. The real-time wave and tidal observations at the Haeundae coast in 2012 were applied to the rip current warning system, and its performances at several real events observed from the video cameras were presented and analyzed.