Western Region Sea State and Surf Forecaster's Manual

摘要

The manual is intended as a ready reference for operational techniques of wind wave, swell and breaker forecasting. No attempt is made to advance new concepts or present mathematical developments. Neither is any one wave forecasting system claimed to be superior to any other. Indeed it is the difficulty of defining the wind wave generating parameters that introduces differences between the various diagnostic and forecasting techniques. Given a well-defined wind field, differences in forecasts made using the various wave spectra and forecast schemes would be well within the limits of observational accuracy. Water waves constitute a large domain ranging from capillary waves, with periods in fractions of a second, up through diurnal tides with periods of approximately 24 hours. Long period atmospheric or storm induced ocean waves may have periods measured in days or even weeks. This manual will present a stereotyped technique for predicting wind generated waves and as such will concentrate on a narrow band of the water wave spectrum. (Author)