Ocean Wave Climate: (8 Marine Science)

Waves critically affect man in coastal regions, including the open coasts and adjacent continental shelves. Preventing beach erosion, designing and building structures, designing and operating ships, providing marine forecasts, and coastal planning are but a few examples of projects for which extensive information about wave conditions is critical. Scientific studies, especially those in- volving coastal processes and the development of better wave prediction models, also require wave condition information. How- ever, wave conditions along and off the coasts of the United States have not been adequately determined. The main categories of available wave data are visual estimates of wave conditions made from ships at sea, scientific measurements of waves made for short time periods at specific locations, and a small number of long-term measurements made from piers or offshore platforms. With these considerations in mind, the National Ocean Survey of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration sponsored the Ocean Wave Climate Symposium at Herndon, Virginia, July 12-14, 1977. This volume contains papers presented at this symposium. A goal of the symposium was to establish the foundations for a com- prehensive and far-sighted wave measurement and analysis program to fully describe the coastal wave climate of the United States. Emphasis was placed on ocean engineering and scientific uses of wave data, existing wave monitoring programs, and modern measure- ment techniques which may provide currently needed data.

Table of Contents:
I. Wave Models and Wave Data Applications.- Providing Winds for Wave Models.- Practical Determinations of Design Wave Conditions.- State-of-the-Art Wave Prediction Methods and Data Requirements.- Wave Data Requirements for Ship Design and Operation.- Extreme Waves and Loadings on Floating Vessels.- II. Wave Measurements.- Ocean Surface Features Observed by HF Coastal Ground-Wave Radars: A Progress Review.- A Compact Transportable HF Radar System for Directional Coastal Wave Field Measurements.- Synthetic Aperture HF Radar Wave Measurement Experiments.- High Frequency Skywave Measurements of Waves and Currents Associated with Tropical and Extratropical Storms.- An Assessment of GEOS-3 Wave Height Measurements.- On the Use of Aircraft in the Observation of One- and Two-Dimensional Ocean Wave Spectra.- Directional Spectra from Wave Sensors.- Data Buoy Wave Measurements.- Measuring the Nearshore Wave Climate, California Experience.- A Note on the Wave Climatology of United Kingdom Waters.- III. Recommendations of Symposium Working Groups.- Summaries of Presentations by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.- Other Government Wave Programs.- List of Contributors and Participants.