Estimation Approaches of ηUV,PUV and UV Directional Wave Spectra and Their Comparison

The observation and estimation of directional spectra of sea waves is one of the essential subjects of study of oceanic dynamics. On the basis of the irregular linear wave theory, estimation methods for i/UV, PUV and VV directional wave spectra are derived. By using ij and PUV data measured in-situ, directional wave spectra are estimated, meanwhile the virtues and defects of various spectra are comparied. This method provide a basis for the observations of sea waves.     

The retrieval of the nonlinear random waves from the non-Gaussian characteristics of the sea surface elevation distribution

In this paper, without recourse to the nonlinear dynamical equations of the waves, the nonlinear random waves are retrieved from the non-Gaussian characteristic of the sea surface elevation distribution. The question of coincidence of the nonlinear wave profile, spectrum and its distributions of maximum (or minimum) values of the sea surface elevation with results derived from some existing nonlinear theories is expounded under the narrow-band spectrum condition. Taking the shoaling sea wave as an example, the nonlinear random wave process and its spectrum in shallow water are retrieved from both the non-Gaussian characteristics of the sea surface elevation distribution in shallow water and the normal sea waves in deep water and compared with the values actually measured. Results show that they can coincide with the actually measured values quite well, thus, this can confirm that the method proposed in this paper is feasible.     

分析海浪方向谱的扩展本征矢方法Ⅰ.方法的导出

基于交叉谱矩阵可以按本征值划分为信号和含有噪音部分的思想，提出了一种自直接测量数据估计海浪方向谱的方法。该方法称为扩展本征矢方法（EEV），可应用于单点测量系统、仪器阵列以及由二者构成的复合阵列。现有的某些估计方法（如最大似然方法及其扩展形式等）仅是此方法的某种特例。     

Free-surface evolution and wave kinematics for nonlinear uni-directional focused wave groups

This paper concerns the propagation of transient wave groups, focused at a point in time and space to produce locally large waves having a range of steepness. The experimental study was carried out in a wave flume at Dalian University of Technology. The numerical simulations were based on a nonlinear boundary integral equation solved by a higher-order boundary element method (HOBEM). Rather than simulate the whole experimental tank, local surface elevation measurements were used to drive the numerical solution from a point less than two wavelengths upstream of the focus position, leading to significant savings in computational time. Excellent agreement is achieved between the water surface elevations and the water particle kinematics measured in the experiments and those predicted numerically at wave group focus, even for near-breaking waves up to a steepness of kA=0.405 for which even locally matched 2nd-order theory is inadequate. Results based on the linear and 2nd-order theory are also presented in the comparisons. When compared with the first- and 2nd-order solutions, the fully nonlinear wave–wave interactions produce a steeper wave envelope in which the central wave crest is higher and narrower, while the adjacent wave troughs are broader and less deep.     

Nonlinear numerical simulation on extreme-wave kinematics

A fully nonlinear numerical model based on a time-domain higher-order boundary element method (HOBEM) is founded to simulate the kinematics of extreme waves. In the model, the fully nonlinear free surface boundary conditions are satisfied and a semi-mixed Euler-Lagrange method is used to track free surface; a fourth-order Runga-Kutta technique is adopted to refresh the wave elevation and velocity potential on the free surface at each time step; an image Green function is used in the numerical wave tank so that the integrations on the lateral surfaces and bottom are excluded. The extreme waves are generated by the method of wave focusing. The physical experiments are carried out in a wave flume. On the horizontal velocity of the measured point, numerical solutions agree well with experimental results. The characteristics of the nonlinear extreme-wave kinematics and the velocity distribution are studied here.     

极限波浪运动特性的非线性数值模拟

利用时域高阶边界元方法建立了模拟极限波浪运动的完全非线性数值模型,其中自由水面满足完全非线性自由水面条件.采用半混合欧拉-拉格朗日方法追踪流体瞬时水面,运用四阶Runge-Kutta方法更新下一时间步的波面和速度势,同时应用镜像格林函数消除水槽两个侧面和底面上的积分.研究中利用波浪聚焦的方法产生极限波浪,并且在水槽中开展了物理模型实验,将测点试验数据与数值结果进行了对比,两者吻合得很好.对极限波浪运动的非线性和流域内速度分布进行了研究.     

An efficient focusing model for generation of freak waves

Based on the Longuet-Higgins wave model theory, the previews studies have shown that freak waves can be generated in finite space and time successfully. However, as to generating high nonlinear freak waves, the simulation results will be unrealistic. Therefore, a modified phase modulation method for simulating high nonlinear freak waves was developed. The surface elevations of some wave components at certain time and place are positive by modulating the corresponding random initial phases, then the total surface elevation at the focused point is enhanced and furthermore a freak wave event is generated. The new method can not only make the freak wave occur at certain time and place, but also make the simulated wave surface time series satisfy statistical properties of the realistic sea state and keep identical with the target wave spectrum. This numerical approach is of good precision and high efficiency by the comparisons of the simulated freak waves and the recorded freak waves.     

海浪波面极大值分布的非线性影响

依非线性海浪模型,在二阶近似下,利用特征函数展开技术和直接求矩的方法,导出了定点波面位移及其对时间的一阶和二阶导数的联合分布。由此联合分布,导出了二阶非线性近似下的波面极大值分布。它由线性意义下的海浪频谱及所考虑的二阶级。波相互作用所确定。当忽略非线性影响时,文中给出的波面极大值分布退化为Cartwright和Longuet-Higgins所导出的分布。     

A method of determining dominant wave direction from multiparameter hydrological gauge measurements and its application

Multi-parameter hydrological gauge is an instrument developed by the South China Sea Institute of Oceanology,the Chinese Academy of Sciences to make simultaneous observation of current, wave, tide, water temperature and conductivity.By using the well-known "PUV method", the directional wave spectrum can be calculated and the dominant wave direction is then obtained.The comparison of the dominant wave directions derived from the measurements using both the multi-parameter hydrological gauge and the MARK Ⅱ "Wave-Rider" directional buoy shows that the dominant wave directions derived from the two kinds of measurements are in good agreement.     

Comparison of inversion algorithms for HF radar wave measurements

All ocean wave components contribute to the second-order scattering of a high-frequency (HF) radio wave by the sea surface. It is therefore theoretically possible to estimate the ocean wave spectrum from the radar backscatter. To extract the wave information, it is necessary to solve the nonlinear integral equation that describes the relationship between the backscatter spectrum and the ocean wave directional spectrum. Different inversion techniques have been developed for this problem by different researchers, but there is at present no accepted “best” method. This paper gives an assessment of the current status of two methods for deriving sea-state information from HF radar observations of the sea surface. The methods are applied to simulated data and to an experimental data set with sea-truth being provided by a directional wave buoy     

Detection of nonlinear waves and their contribution to ocean wave spectra Part I: Theoretical consideration

This is a Part I of a paper of nonlinearities of wind waves in the deep open ocean. First, considerations are given in order to verify the theoretical expression for bound waves from observed data. We compare the contribution of bound waves and double Bragg scattering to the second-order scattering, and we show that the contribution of bound waves is larger, and that bound waves can be detected by measuring the Doppler spectra of HF (high-frequency) radio wave scattering from the sea surface. Moreover, if the theory of the HF radio wave scattering from the sea surface is verified, so is the second-order perturbation theory for bound waves. Then, the contributions of bound waves to ocean wave spectra are investigated on the basis of the nonlinear theory. The bound waves are shown to modify frequency spectra and wave directional distributions at higher frequencies, and it is shown that although the modifications of frequency spectra are smaller for a two-dimensional field case than for a one-dimensional field case, they are not negligible at higher frequencies. On the other hand, the modifications of wave directional distributions are shown to be significant at higher frequencies. These discussions become significant only when bound wave predictions are verified in the open ocean. Consequently, it is shown that nonlinearities of water waves are important in considering both radio wave scattering from the sea surface and the detailed structures of ocean wave spectra at high frequencies.     

Comparison of experimental irregular water wave elevation and kinematic data with new hybrid wave model predictions

Surface water wave elevations and kinematics from four unidirectional irregular wave trains, with a Pierson and Moskowitz or JONSWAP random wave spectrum, were measured in the laboratory using resistance wave probes and a laser Doppler anemometer. The wave elevation data, velocity time series, extreme (largest) wave horizontal velocity profiles and extreme wave acceleration fields are compared with the predictions of a new wave kinematics model, named the hybrid wave model. Irregular waves are commonly viewed as the summation of many linear wave components of different frequencies, but more accurate predictions of downstream surface elevations (wave evolution) and wave kinematics are attained by considering the non-linear interactions among wave components. The hybrid wave model incorporates these non-linear wave component interactions, and its wave evolution predictions and kinematics estimates are compared with laboratory measurements in this study. Linear random wave theory, Wheeler stretching and linear extrapolation wave kinematic prediction techniques are also compared. Comparisons between measurements and hybrid wave model estimates demonstrate its improved capability to predict velocity and acceleration fields and wave evolution in two-dimensional irregular waves.     

由压力、流速估计波浪方向谱数据处理方法

通过现场观测水底压力和矢量流速，可以估计海面波浪方向谱，此方法称为ＰＵＶ法。本文由不规则线性波浪理论和洪广文［２］方向谱概率模式结合导出ＰＵＶ估计谱的计算式，并针对实测数据受到干扰的问题、依据相关理论与经验，提出了谱估计的数据处理与修正方法     

Three-dimensional nonlinear random wave groups in intermediate water depth

High waves at ocean occur during a complex space–time evolution of wave groups. In this paper the nonlinear structure of three-dimensional sea wave groups at intermediate water depth is investigated. To this purpose, the Boccotti's Quasi-Determinism theory is firstly applied to describe the linear wave groups when a given exceptionally high crest occurs. Then, the second-order correction to the linear solution is derived for the general condition of three-dimensional wave groups, at a finite water depth. Several numerical applications, finally, have been carried out in order to show how both the spectral bandwidth and the directional spreading modify the nonlinear high waves at different water depth.     

Detection of nonlinear waves and their contribution to ocean wave spectra Part II: Observation

This is a Part II of a paper of nonlinearities of wind waves in the deep open ocean. As shown in Part I, bound waves in deep sea are detectable by extracting secondorder Doppler spectra from the Doppler spectra of HF (high-frequency) radio waves scattered from the sea surface. There is a remarkable agreement between the calculated and measured Doppler spectra, considering the noise levels in measured Doppler spectra and the uncertainties in directional properties. The theoretical expression for bound waves is thus verified. Furthermore, the upper limit in calculating the Doppler spectra for the second-order approximation is presented from field observations, although we cannot conclude that it is equivalent to the limitation of the second-order bound wave theory. It is shown that analysis of radio wave scattering by the sea surface is one useful means of understanding the nonlinear properties of ocean waves.     

Detection of ocean waves using satellite altimetry: Application to equatorial Kelvin waves

A new method for wave motion detection from satellite altimetric measurements of sea surface height is presented. The essence of the approach is to construct a two‐dimensional traveling‐wave Fourier series representation of the amplitude field within a prespecified oceanic region. The method employs an iterative, nonlinear least‐squares technique based on the Marquardt‐Levenberg algorithm to solve for model parameters describing characteristic features of the evolving wave system. The Marquardt‐Levenberg Fourier series (MLFS) algorithm was applied to Kelvin waves active during the 1986–1987 El Nino event in the equatorial Pacific ocean using GEOSAT Exact Repeat Mission altimetry data. Characteristics of the wave system were found to be in essential agreement with earlier field measurements and the observations of Cheney and Miller (1987) obtained using time series developed from GEOSAT data. The advantage of the present detection scheme lies in its speed and ability to determine a wave system's dispersion relation over a finite range of wavenumbers, and hence the group velocity of that system.     

Local properties of sea waves derived from a wave record

It is demonstrated that for linear deep sea waves with small directional scattering the particle motion at the sea surface and energy transmission may be retrieved from a wave record by means of the Hilbert transform. A physical interpretation of the envelope of the two-dimensional deep sea waves as well as a new method for wave group analysis is presented.     

Elimination of directional wave spectrum contamination from noise in elevation measurements

The Surface Contour Radar (SCR) is a 36-GHz computer-controlled airborne radar which generates a false-color-coded elevation map of the sea surface below the aircraft in real time, and can routinely produce ocean directional wave spectra with post-flight data processing which have much higher angular resolution than pitch-and-roll buoys. The SCR range measurements are not error-free and the resulting errors in the elevations corrupt the directional wave spectrum. This paper presents a technique for eliminating that contamination.     

Multidirectional wave transformation around detached breakwaters

The performance of the new wave diffraction feature of the shallow-water spectral model SWAN, particularly its ability to predict the multidirectional wave transformation around shore-parallel emerged breakwaters is examined using laboratory and field data. Comparison between model predictions and field measurements of directional spectra was used to identify the importance of various wave transformation processes in the evolution of the directional wave field. First, the model was evaluated against laboratory measurements of diffracted multidirectional waves around a breakwater shoulder. Excellent agreement between the model predictions and measurements was found for broad frequency and directional spectra. The performance of the model worsened with decreasing frequency and directional spread. Next, the performance of the model with regard to diffraction–refraction was assessed for directional wave spectra around detached breakwaters. Seven different field cases were considered: three wind–sea spectra with broad frequency and directional distributions, each coming from a different direction; two swell–sea bimodal spectra; and two swell spectra with narrow frequency and directional distributions. The new diffraction functionality in SWAN improved the prediction of wave heights around shore-parallel breakwaters. Processes such as beach reflection and wave transmission through breakwaters seem to have a significant role on transformation of swell waves behind the breakwaters. Bottom friction and wave–current interactions were less important, while the difference in frequency and directional distribution might be associated with seiching.     

Space–time measurements of oceanic sea states

Stereo video techniques are effective for estimating the space–time wave dynamics over an area of the ocean. Indeed, a stereo camera view allows retrieval of both spatial and temporal data whose statistical content is richer than that of time series data retrieved from point wave probes. We present an application of the Wave Acquisition Stereo System (WASS) for the analysis of offshore video measurements of gravity waves in the Northern Adriatic Sea and near the southern seashore of the Crimean peninsula, in the Black Sea. We use classical epipolar techniques to reconstruct the sea surface from the stereo pairs sequentially in time, viz. a sequence of spatial snapshots. We also present a variational approach that exploits the entire data image set providing a global space–time imaging of the sea surface, viz. simultaneous reconstruction of several spatial snapshots of the surface in order to guarantee continuity of the sea surface both in space and time. Analysis of the WASS measurements show that the sea surface can be accurately estimated in space and time together, yielding associated directional spectra and wave statistics at a point in time that agrees well with probabilistic models. In particular, WASS stereo imaging is able to capture typical features of the wave surface, especially the crest-to-trough asymmetry due to second order nonlinearities, and the observed shape of large waves are fairly described by theoretical models based on the theory of quasi-determinism (Boccotti, 2000). Further, we investigate space–time extremes of the observed stationary sea states, viz. the largest surface wave heights expected over a given area during the sea state duration. The WASS analysis provides the first experimental proof that a space–time extreme is generally larger than that observed in time via point measurements, in agreement with the predictions based on stochastic theories for global maxima of Gaussian fields.