Ocean Wave Statistics for 1961 North Atlantic Storm

Various statistical quantities for a random wave system are derived by different proposed means and compared to each other. A series of ocean waves recorded during a severe storm in the North Atlantic in September 1961 is utilized for this purpose. The data includes the growth and decay periods of the storm. Such quantities as the significant and maximum wave heights, wave periods, and spectral width parameter are obtained. The analysis is carried out both in the time and frequency domain. The two methods are found to show reasonably good agreement in their results. The distributions of the individual wave heights and periods in a record and their joint distribution are investigated. The histograms for these parameters compared favorably with simple theoretical models for narrow-band spectra.