Statistical, Empirical Wind-Wave and Wind-Current Relationships in Coastal Waters

Winds, currents, and wave heights have been recorded for several years near the New Jersey coast. These data sets permit statistical examination of wind-current and wind-wave height relationships. Determination of statistically significant relationships permits the use of existing wind data to extend the representativeness of observed time series. Observed wave heights and currents are sorted into groups corresponding to different, suitably averaged, prevailing winds. Bivariate wave height/wind speed histograms and summary statistics are determined for eight classes of wind direction. Polar coordinate scatter plots and rms distribution ellipses of current observations corresponding to each wind category are displayed. Such distributions provide usable, empirical predictive capability. Wave height distributions show that onshore wind speeds greater than 14 m/s always resulted in significant wave heights greater than 2.1 m. Offshore and downcoast winds exceeding 5 m/sec are responsible for almost all currents exceeding 30 cm/sec.