Basic Wave Theory Review

Graham Warren
Bureau of Meteorology
Australia
Why Forecast Waves?
•SOLAS
•Shore
Protection
•Surf
•Oil and gas
exploration

17 June, 2003 2
 Wave Characteristics
• Some simple definitions
• Dispersion relation
• Deep water waves
• Wave Spectrum

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 Definitions
• Wind (or sea) waves - generated by the local
prevailing wind

• Swell waves - the regular longer period waves that

were generated by the winds of distant weather
systems. There may be several sets of swell waves
travelling in different directions, causing a
confused sea state.

• Sea state is the combination of wind waves and

swell.
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 Properties of Waves
• Wavelength  (metres)
• Height H (=2x amplitude) (metres)
• Period T (seconds)
• Phase velocity c
=cT

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 Total wave height
• Height of the wind waves = Hw
• Height of Swell waves = Hsw

• Total wave height = (Hw2 + Hsw2)1/2

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 Dispersion
• Dispersion is the variation of wave speed
with wavelength
• Define   2 / T ; k  2 / 
• Dispersion relation is  2
 gk tanh( kd)
– deep water:   gk
2

– shallow water:  2  gk 2 d

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 Group Velocity
• Phase velocity is the speed at which a particular
phase of the wave propagates
• Group velocity
– Velocity at which a group of waves travel
– Velocity of propagation of wave energy

cg   / k

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 Deep Water Waves
• Applies when depth of water >  /4
• c2k2=gk
• Phase Velocity : c = g/=gT /2
•  = cT = gT2/2 = 1.56T2 m (T in secs)
• c=1.56T (m/sec)
• Group velocity: cg= gT /4 = c/2 = 0.78 T m/sec

• Thus: Longer waves travel faster

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 The Wave Spectrum
Fourier Analysis of wave trains:
n
  0   a j sin( j0t   j )
j 1
E

Variance of the wave record is

obtained by averaging the
squares of the deviations of
each of the wave components
from the mean - gives wave
spectrum (Energy spectrum) Frequency

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 Wave Growth
• Basic concepts
• Manual forecasting techniques
• Changing Wind
• Swell Forecasting

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 Wave Heights, Wind and Fetch
• Energy from the wind is transferred to
waves
• Waves lose energy Wave height
– Whitecapping depends on a
– Interaction with sea floor etc
balance
• The greater the wind speed, the higher
the waves between
• The longer the duration of the wind, the energy in and
higher the waves energy out
• The greater the distance over which the
wind blows (the FETCH) the higher the
waves.

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 Wind Wave Growth
• Growth usually explained by shear flow
instability
– Airflow sucks at crests and pushes on troughs
• Rate of growth is exponential as it depends
on the existing sea state and wave age
• Empirical formulae have been derived from
large data set
– Curves developed for manual forecasting
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 Characteristic Height and Period of Deep
Water Waves
• Empirical Studies show:
t = duration of
2 2
u gt u gX wind
H c  ht ( )  hx ( 2 ) X=fetch
g u g u
Duration limited Fetch limited
u = wind speed
u gt u gX
Tc  pt ( )  px ( 2 )
g u g u g = 9.8m/s2

ht, hx, pt and px are dimensionless functions.

They all tend to a limit as the parameter (gt/u or

gX/u2) increases to ~ 105 14
 Wave Height and Period

= gt/u
or gX/u2
hx (  )
2
u
H c  h ( ) ht()
g
u
Tc  p ( )
g px() pt()


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Wave Height and Period for General
Conditions
• Need to take the fetch and duration (time for
which the wind is blowing) into account
• Can use the general curves based on non-
dimensional parameters
– simple diagram, “complicated” calculation
• OR use a more complicated set of curves
– Complicated diagram, no calculation
• May need to take into account varying wind
conditions (changes in direction and/or speed)
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 Manual Wave Forecasting Diagram
(Gröen and Dorrestein, 1976

Need fetch
2.8m >80km
5.8s
Fetch=25km
1.8m 4s

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 Range of Wave Heights and
Periods
• Wave heights can range from 0 to 2Hc
– The factor of 2 relates to the maximum wave
likely to be observed in a period of a few hours,
not the absolute maximum possible. The value
depends only weakly on the length of time.

• Most waves have periods in the range 0.5Tc

to 1.5Tc
– Important when forecasting swell
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 Wave Heights with Changing Wind
Conditions
1. Change in wind direction
• If wind direction changes by < 30°, calculate
waves conditions as if no change in direction has
occurred
• If wind direction changes by > 30°, treat existing
waves as swell waves, and start calculation for
new wind direction from scratch.
• As a rule of thumb, swell will decrease in height
by 25% over period of 12 hours
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 Wave Heights with Changing Wind
Conditions
2. Increasing wind speed (direction change <30°)
• New wind speed is V2
• Take wave height at time of increase = H1
• Calculate the duration required to achieve H1
given the new wind speed (=T1)
• If the new speed lasts for time T2, calculate wave
conditions assuming duration = T1 + T2 and speed
= V2.
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 Example of Increasing Wind
• An 8 m/s wind has blown for 6 hours, fetch
100km
• The wind gradually increases to 16m/s over
a 6 hour period.
• Estimate Hc and Tc at the end of the period
– For a quick calculation, when wind speed
increase is gradual from v1 to v2 over a period,
use speed = v2 – (v2-v1)/4 as the speed in the
calculation.
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 Wave Heights with Changing Wind
Conditions
3. Slackening wind speed
• When wind drops below speed needed to
maintain height of existing waves*, the
waves turn into swell.
• As a first approximation, swell height may
be reduced by 25% every 12 hours.

* The minimum wind speed that will produce the

existing wave height at the specified fetch
 Swell Forecasting
• For distant storms, regard the source of the
swell as a point
– For nearby storms the situation is more
complicated
• Questions:
– When will the swell arrive?
– Which wavelengths are involved?
– What is the height of the swell?

Here we develop some simple, first

approximations 23
 Swell Length and Arrival Time
• Longest wavelengths travel fastest, so they arrive
first
• Range of periods is T~ 0.5Tc to 1.5Tc
– Other periods exist, but the energy in them is small
–  = 1.56T2 m (T in secs)
• Speed is 1.515 T knots (T in secs)
– Longest waves arrive after time:
Time ~ distance (NM)/(1.5*1.5Tc) hrs
– Shortest waves take 3 times as long to arrive.

•Eg: Tc=6secs, distance = 600 nm, min time = 44 hours

maximum swell length = 126m 24
 Swell Height
• Height of swell depends on
– Height of waves in source region, and extent of source
region
– Speed dispersion (longer waves and shorter waves have
different speeds – don’t arrive together)
– Angular spreading of the waves (height decreases with
distance as wave energy spreads over larger areas)
– Angle between wind direction and direction to storm

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 Angular Spreading of Swell from a Storm

% spreading
factor for
energy
Wind direction in storm
Take square
root for
Distance to storm/extent of storm
swell height

Extent of storm Eg: Swell =

Swell calculated here
Factor =0.15 0.15 * Hc

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 Wave Measurements
• Visual observations
• Instruments for measuring waves
– Buoys
– Sub-surface pressure sensors
– Laser
• Remote sensing
– Radar Altimeter
– Synthetic Aperture Radar

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 Visual Observations
• Guide only as visual observations are not
generally reliable
• Observations of height tend to approximate
to the significant wave height

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 Instruments
• Wave buoys
– Vertical acceleration measured – can be
converted to wave height
• Wave staff
– Attached to platforms – wave height measured
by change in resistance or capacitance of the
wave staff

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 Instruments (2)
• Pressure sensors
– Mounted from platforms below surface –
change in pressure is measure of wave height
• Laser
– Attached to platforms – pointing downward

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 Remote Sensing
Waves from ERS-2 Radar Altimeter

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 Remote Sensing (2)
• Synthetic Aperture Radar
– Successive radar observations made along
satellite track
– Optical or digital processing produces high
grade imaging of the longer waves
– Wave directional spectrum (with 180o
ambiguity) obtained by analysis of image

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 Finally….
• The accuracy of any wave forecast is
dependant on the accuracy of the
wind forecast.

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