Harbor resonance triggered by atmospherically driven edge waves

Abstract It has been observed and theoretically proved that large tsunami-like waves can be caused by moving pressure disturbances along the shoreline. Since serious disasters due to meteorological tsunamis usually occurred in long and narrow harbors or bays, this study focuses on the resonance response of a harbor to atmospheric disturbances moving along the shoreline. The possibility and mechanism for severe oscillation occurring in the harbor have been investigated. The results show that severe oscillations can occur after a disturbance passes over, but not always. In that case, harbor resonance corresponding to one of harbor eigen frequencies has been excited. It is found that the excitation of harbor resonance mainly depends on the translational speed and spatial scale of atmospheric disturbance. Large oscillation occurs only within a small range of the translational speed and spatial scale, for a specific harbor which eigen frequencies are fixed. It is greatly associated with the amplitude of edge waves induced by disturbances. A criterion has been proposed to predict the appearance of notable edge waves with similar frequency to the harbor eigen frequencies, which is a necessary condition for severe oscillation in the harbor.