Directional Characteristics of the 1990-1999 Wave Information Studies. Gulf of Mexico Hindcast.

: Wave hindcast information is invaluable to coastal engineers, and validation of this hindcast information is of utmost importance. The usual validation procedure is to compare hindcast information with measured data at a coincident location. Wave height and period can be validated easily using linear statistics but validation of wave direction is more complex since we are dealing with circular data. This paper discusses statistical measures that give insight into the comparison of hindcasted mean wave direction with measured mean wave direction. The statistical procedures described in this paper could be applied to any of the other directional parameters available from the hindcast. Results are shown for the recent 1990-1999 Wave Information Studies (WIS) Gulf of Mexico Level 3 Wave Hindcast produced at the Engineer Research and Development Center's Coastal and Hydraulics Laboratory at the Waterways Experiment Station in Vicksburg, Mississippi.