Open AccessA WAVE HEIGHT AND FREQUENCY METER
Author(s) -
Frank Snodgrass,
R. R. Putz
Publication year - 1957
Publication title -
proceedings of conference on coastal engineering/proceedings of ... conference on coastal engineering
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
eISSN - 2156-1028
pISSN - 0589-087X
DOI - 10.9753/icce.v6.13
Subject(s) - significant wave height , wave height , observer (physics) , mathematics , geodesy , metre , wind wave , meteorology , statistics , geology , geography , physics , oceanography , quantum mechanics , astronomy
During World War II a group of Naval officers conducted visual measurements of ocean waves simultaneously with instrumental recordings. A comparison of the visual and instrumental values indicated ".... the natural tendency for the observer .... to record not the average wave height but a wave height based on some kind of average of the highest waves. The general experience is that an observer will give a value for the wave height which represents the average of the highest 20 to 40 per cent of the waves" (SIO, 1944). The average height of the highest one-third of the waves, H1/3, was therefore suggested as the characteristic (or significant) wave height. "Characteristic wave period" was given a corresponding definition as the average period of the highest one-third waves.