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Breaking swell waves at Hermosa Beach, California. A swell, also sometimes referred to as ground swell, in the context of an ocean, sea or lake, is a series of mechanical waves that propagate along the interface between water and air under the predominating influence of gravity, and thus are often referred to as surface gravity waves.
Swell height is the height of the swell in deep water. [1] Swell direction is the direction from which the swell is coming. It is measured in degrees (as on a compass), and often referred to in general directions, such as a NNW or SW swell. [1] Swell period is an important factor in surf forecasting. It is a measurement of time between ...
In oceanography, sea state is the general condition of the free surface on a large body of water—with respect to wind waves and swell—at a certain location and moment. A sea state is characterized by statistics, including the wave height, period, and spectrum. The sea state varies with time, as the wind and swell conditions change.
Significant wave height H 1/3, or H s or H sig, as determined in the time domain, directly from the time series of the surface elevation, is defined as the average height of that one-third of the N measured waves having the greatest heights: [5] / = = where H m represents the individual wave heights, sorted into descending order of height as m increases from 1 to N.
Set waves: A group of waves of larger size within a swell; Shoulder: The unbroken part of a breaking wave; Surf's up: A phrase used when there are waves worth surfing [2] Swell: A series of waves that have traveled from their source in a distant storm, and that will start to break once the swell reaches shallow enough water
The Douglas sea scale, also called the "international sea and swell scale", was devised in 1921 [1] by Captain H. P. Douglas, who later became vice admiral Sir Percy Douglas and hydrographer of the Royal Navy. Its purpose is to estimate the roughness of the sea for navigation.
Depending on context, wave height may be defined in different ways: For a sine wave, the wave height H is twice the amplitude (i.e., the peak-to-peak amplitude): [1] =.; For a periodic wave, it is simply the difference between the maximum and minimum of the surface elevation z = η(x – c p t): [1] = {()} {()}, with c p the phase speed (or propagation speed) of the wave.
Wind-wave dissipation or "swell dissipation" is process in which a wave generated via a weather system loses its mechanical energy transferred from the atmosphere via wind. Wind waves, as their name suggests, are generated by wind transferring energy from the atmosphere to the ocean's surface, capillary gravity waves play an essential role in ...