Abstract
Future changes in wind-wave climate have broad implications for operation and design of coastal, near- and off-shore industries, ecosystems and wave energy resources. However, wind-waves have received little attention in global assessments of projected long-term range of future climate change. We present strategies and results from the community derived multi-model ensemble of wave climate projections (COWCLIP). The COWCLIP project has been active since 2011 and includes global and regional wave climate projections. Results show that the area of projected significant wave height Hs decrease is greater during boreal winter (January-March) than boreal summer (July-September) in the northern Hemisphere. A projected increase in annual mean Hs is found over 7.1% of the global ocean, predominantly in the Southern Ocean, and is larger during austral winter. Increased Southern Ocean wave activity influences a larger proportion of the global ocean as swell propagates northwards into the other ocean basins.