On the determination of directional wave spectra for practical applications

The performance of various directional instruments for practical oceanographic and coastal engineering applications is examined. The emphasis is put on the application of conventional current meters equipped with high resolution pressure sensors and three element arrays. Two simulation techniques have been used to produce input data with known frequency spectrum and known directional spreading. The directional spreading is determined by the maximum likelihood method and the resulting spreading is compared with the input spreading. The performance of a conventional current meter equipped with a high resolution pressure sensor depends on the width of the directional spreading of surface waves and on the frequencies under consideration. Even for very narrow directional spreading, the current meter response is acceptable for practical applications and for shallow water deployment. In general, the current meter directional response does not depend on the direction of the incident waves. The spatial array of three wave staffs deployed in shallow water shows a similar performance to that of the current meters when the dimension of the spatial array is of the order of 1 m. This performance also does not depend on the direction of the incident waves.