Coastal Wave-Height Statistics during Hurricane Ike
Publication: Journal of Waterway, Port, Coastal, and Ocean Engineering
Volume 142, Issue 3
Abstract
The statistical behavior of wave heights obtained from short-term (i.e., 30-min) wave records during Hurricane Ike was investigated. Spectral data from seven temporary pressure gauges and one National Data Buoy Center (NDBC) buoy moored off the coast of Texas, covering a 12-day period, were used. The wave heights, based on time series reconstructed from the spectra, showed a very good fit to the form of the Rayleigh distribution with as the parameter of the distribution, whereas the use of the spectrally derived parameter led to overprediction of the wave heights. Incorporating the spectral band width () in the Rayleigh distribution reduced this overprediction. The empirical two-parameter Weibull distribution was also found to represent the wave-height distribution well, but with parameters different from a = 2.126 and b = 8.42. The Tayfun model, used as a representative of Rayleigh-like models, provided the best fit. When converting model-derived significant wave heights to other quantities, such as,and, the standard Rayleigh coefficients are often used in practice. These led to considerable errors in the present analysis, which also shows that the use of correction factor or can enhance the results. However, direct estimates of these quantities from a time series simulated using the model-derived spectrum may be an even better alternative to using the standard Rayleigh coefficients.
Get full access to this article
View all available purchase options and get full access to this article.
Acknowledgments
We are grateful to Dr. Andrew Kennedy of the University of Notre Dame for providing the coastal gauge data and related assistance in interpreting the data.
References
American Petroleum Institute. (2000). Recommended practice for planning, designing and constructing fixed offshore platforms: Working stress design, 21st Ed., Washington, DC.
American Petroleum Institute. (2007). Interim guidance on hurricane conditions in the Gulf of Mexico, Washington, DC.
Battjes, J. A., and Groenendijk, H. W. (2000). “Wave height distributions on shallow foreshores.” Coastal Eng., 40(3), 161–182.
Boccotti, P., (1989). On mechanics of irregular gravity waves, Atti della Accademia Nazionale dei Lincei, Memorie VIII, Vol. 19, Atti della Accademia Nazionale dei Lincei, Roma, Italy, 110–170.
Borgman, L. E. (1969). “Ocean wave simulation for engineering design.” J. Waterway, Port, Coastal Div., 95(4), 557–586.
Casas-Prat, M., and Holthuijsen, L. H. (2010). “Short-term statistics of waves observed in deep water.” J. Geophys. Res., 115(C9), C09024.
Earle, M. D. (1975). “Extreme wave conditions during hurricane Camille.” J. Geophys. Res., 80(3), 377–379.
Elgar, S., Guza, R. T., and Seymour, R. J. (1985). “Wave group statistics from numerical simulations of a random sea.” Appl. Ocean Res., 7(2), 93–96.
Feng, X., Tsimplis, M. N., Quartly, G. D., and Yelland, M. J. (2014). “Wave height analysis from 10 years of observations in the Norwegian Sea.” Cont. Shelf Res., 72, 47–56.
Forristal, G. Z. (1978). “On the statistical distribution of wave heights in a storm.” J. Geophys. Res., 83(C5), 2353–2358.
Forristal, G. Z. (2000). “Wave crest distributions: Observations and second-order theory.” J. Phys. Oceanogr., 30, 1931–1943.
Frechot, J. (2007). “Realistic simulation of ocean surface using wave spectra,” J. Virtual Reality Broadcasting, 4(11), 76–83.
Holthuijsen, L. H. (2007). Waves in oceanic and coastal waters, Cambridge Univ. Press, Cambridge, U.K., 387.
Hope, M. E., et al. (2013). “Hindcast and validation of Hurricane Ike (2008) waves, forerunner, and storm surge.” J. Geophys. Res. Oceans, 118(9), 4424–4460.
Kennedy, A. B., et al. (2010). “Rapidly installed temporary gauging for waves and surge, and application to Hurricane Gustav.” Cont. Shelf Res., 30(16), 1743–1752.
Kennedy, A. B., Gravois, U., and Zachry, B. (2011). “Observations of landfalling wave spectra during Hurricane Ike.” J. Waterway, Port, Coastal Ocean Eng., 142–145.
Krogstad, H. E. (1985). “Height and period distributions of extreme waves.” Appl. Ocean Res., 7(3), 158–165.
Longuet-Higgins, M. S. (1952). “On the statistical distribution of the heights of sea waves.” J. Marine Res., 11(3), 245–265.
Longuet-Higgins, M. S. (1980). “On the distribution of the heights of sea waves: Some effects of non-linearity and finite band-width,” J. Geophys. Res., 85(C3), 1519–1523.
Massel, S. R. (1996). Ocean surface waves: Their physics and prediction, 11, World Scientific, Singapore.
Minitab 17 [Computer software]. Minitab, Inc., State College, PA, ⟨http://www.minitab.com⟩.
Nolte, K. G., and F. H. Hsu. (1979). “Statistics of larger waves in a sea state.” J. Waterway, Port, Coastal Ocean Eng., 105(WW4), 389–404.
Panchang, V., Jeong, C. K., and Demirbilek, Z. (2013). “Analyses of extreme wave heights in the Gulf of Mexico for offshore engineering applications.” J. Offshore Mech. Arct. Eng., 135(3), 031104-1–031104-15.
Panchang, V., Jeong, C. K., and Li, D. (2008). “Wave climatology in coastal Maine for aquaculture and other applications.” Estuaries Coasts, 31(2), 289–299.
Singhal, G., Panchang, V. G., and Lillibridge, J. L. (2010). “Reliability assessment for operational wave forecasting system in Prince William Sound, Alaska.” J. Waterway, Port, Coastal Ocean Eng., 337–349.
Sorensen, R. M. (2006). Basic coastal engineering, 3rd Ed., Springer, New York.
Tayfun, M. A. (1990). “Distribution of large wave heights.” J. Waterway, Port, Coastal Ocean Eng., 686–707.
Tayfun, M. A., and Fedele, F. (2007). “Wave height distributions and nonlinear effects.” Ocean Eng., 34(11–12), 1631–1649.
Tucker, M. J., Challenor, P. G., and Carter, D. J. T. (1984). “Numerical simulation of a random sea: A common error and its effect upon wave group statistics.” Appl. Ocean Res., 6(2), 118–122.
U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. (2002). “Coastal engineering manual (6 Volumes), Washington, DC.
Vandever, J., Siegel, E., Brubaker, J., and Friedrichs, C. (2008). “Influence of spectral width on wave height parameter estimates in coastal environments.” J. Waterway, Port, Coastal Ocean Eng., 187–194.
Vinje, T. (1989). “The statistical distribution of wave heights in a random seaway.” Appl. Ocean Res., 11(3), 143–152.
Yang, X. (2015). “Statistical analysis of non-stationary waves off the Savannah Coast, Georgia, USA.” Int. J. Ocean Clim. Syst., 6(1), 1–18.
Information & Authors
Information
Published In
Journal of Waterway, Port, Coastal, and Ocean Engineering
Volume 142 • Issue 3 • May 2016
Copyright
© 2015 American Society of Civil Engineers.
History
Received: Feb 25, 2015
Accepted: Sep 18, 2015
Published online: Dec 31, 2015
Published in print: May 1, 2016
Discussion open until: May 31, 2016
Authors
Metrics & Citations
Metrics
Citations
Download citation
If you have the appropriate software installed, you can download article citation data to the citation manager of your choice. Simply select your manager software from the list below and click Download.