Narrow-band nonlinear sea waves
Abstract
Probabilistic description of nonlinear waves with a narrow-band spectrum is simplified to a form in which each realization of the surface displacement becomes an amplitude-modulated Stokes wave with a mean frequency and random phase. Under appropriate conditions this simplification provides a convenient yet rigorous means of describing nonlinear effects on sea surface properties in a semiclosed or closed form. In particular, it is shown that surface displacements are non-Gaussian and skewed, as was previously predicted by the Gram-Charlier approximation; that wave heights are Rayleigh distributed, just as in the linear case; and that crests are non-Rayleigh.
- Publication:
-
Journal of Geophysical Research
- Pub Date:
- March 1980
- DOI:
- 10.1029/JC085iC03p01548
- Bibcode:
- 1980JGR....85.1548T