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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.
A cross sea (also referred to as a squared sea or square waves [a]) is a sea state of wind-generated ocean waves that form nonparallel wave systems. Cross seas have a large amount of directional spreading. [1] This may occur when water waves from one weather system continue despite a shift in wind. Waves generated by the new wind run at an ...
When waves travel into areas of shallow water, they begin to be affected by the ocean bottom. [1] The free orbital motion of the water is disrupted, and water particles in orbital motion no longer return to their original position. As the water becomes shallower, the swell becomes higher and steeper, ultimately assuming the familiar sharp ...
Wind blowing over the surface of a body of water forms waves that are perpendicular to the direction of the wind. The friction between air and water caused by a gentle breeze on a pond causes ripples to form. A stronger gust blowing over the ocean causes larger waves as the moving air pushes against the raised ridges of water.
Through the wind stress, the wind generates ocean surface waves; the longer waves have a phase velocity tending towards the wind speed. Momentum of the surface winds is transferred into the energy flux by the ocean surface waves. The increased roughness of the ocean surface, by the presence of the waves, changes the wind near the surface. Moisture
Propagation of shoaling long waves, showing the variation of wavelength and wave height with decreasing water depth.. In fluid dynamics, Green's law, named for 19th-century British mathematician George Green, is a conservation law describing the evolution of non-breaking, surface gravity waves propagating in shallow water of gradually varying depth and width.
In physical oceanography and fluid mechanics, the Miles-Phillips mechanism describes the generation of wind waves from a flat sea surface by two distinct mechanisms. Wind blowing over the surface generates tiny wavelets. These wavelets develop over time and become ocean surface waves by absorbing the energy transferred from the wind.
Internal tides are generated as the surface tides move stratified water up and down sloping topography, which produces a wave in the ocean interior. So internal tides are internal waves at a tidal frequency. The other major source of internal waves is the wind which produces internal waves near the inertial frequency.