Abstract:
Observed distributions of wave heights and periods taken from one year of surface
wave monitoring near Martha's Vineyard are compared to distributions based on narrow-band
theory. The joint distributions of wave heights and periods and the marginal height
distributions are examined. The observed significant wave heights and the heights and
periods of the extreme waves are also studied.
Seas are classified by the shapes of their power density spectra. Spectra with a single
peak are designated as unimodal and spectra with two peaks as bimodal. Seas are further
classified by spectral width, a function of the three lowest spectral moments.
The joint distributions of wave heights and periods from seas with narrow spectral
widths take the general shape predicted by narrow-band theory and the statistics of
extreme waves for these seas are well described. As spectral width increases, agreement
between the theoretical and observed distributions diminishes and the significant wave
heights and statistics of extreme waves show increasing variability. Bimodal seas with
wide-banded spectra are found to have larger significant and extreme wave heights and
shorter extreme wave periods than unimodal seas of the same width.
