SOME CAUTIONS ON THE EMPLOYMENT OF THE SPECTRAL TECHNIQUE TO DESCRIBE THE WAVES OF THE SEA AND THE RESPONSE THERETO OF OCEANIC SYSTEMS

An overview is presented of the spectral technique for describing, analyzing and predicting the characteristics of seawaves. The author explicitly identifies the conditions that must be observed for the analysis to be proper and the predictions to be accurate. The nature of the errors that are introduced if these conditions are ignored is further discussed. The author points out that when the sea state is light, it can be validly described, (in principle) by the spectral distribution of its variance or energy but that empirical formulations of the shape of the spectrum are not fully satisfactory. However, it is indicated that there is a strong convergence toward a definite basic shape. When the seas grow to moderate intensity, the variance spectrum begins to lose validity, although adjustment can be made so that it remains usable but with lessened confidence. When the seas grow to great intensity, the variance spectrum cannot be depended upon to describe the sea. Prediction of the extreme characteristics of seawaves suffers from serious uncertainty.

Media Info

  • Features: References;
  • Pagination: p. 827-840
  • Serial:
    • Volume: 1

Subject/Index Terms

Filing Info

  • Accession Number: 00054071
  • Record Type: Publication
  • Source Agency: National Maritime Research Center, Galveston
  • Report/Paper Numbers: OTC #1819
  • Files: TRIS
  • Created Date: May 7 1974 12:00AM