Abstract
Introduction The precise forecasting of Significant wave height(SWH) is vital to ensure the safety and efficiency of aquatic activities such as ocean engineering, shipping, and fishing. Methods This paper proposes a deep learning model named SAC-ConvLSTM to perform 24-hour prediction with the SWH in the South China Sea. The long-term prediction capability of the model is enhanced by using the attention mechanism and context vectors. The prediction ability of the model is evaluated by mean absolute error (MAE), root mean square error (RMSE), mean square error (MSE), and Pearson correlation coefficient (PCC). Results The experimental results show that the optimal input sequence length for the model is 12. Starting from 12 hours, the SAC-ConvLSTM model consistently outperforms other models in predictive performance. For the 24-hour prediction, this model achieves RMSE, MAE, and PCC values of 0.2117 m, 0.1083 m, and 0.9630, respectively. In addition, the introduction of wind can improve the accuracy of wave prediction. The SAC-ConvLSTM model also has good prediction performance compared to the ConvLSTM model during extreme weather, especially in coastal areas. Discussion This paper presents a 24-hour prediction of SWH in the South China Sea. Through comparative validation, the SAC-ConvLSTM model outperforms other models. The inclusion of wind data enhances the model's predictive capability. This model also performs well under extreme weather conditions. In physical oceanography, variables related to SWH include not only wind but also other factors such as mean wave period and sea surface air pressure. In the future, additional variables can be incorporated to further improve the model's predictive performance.