Waves critically affect man in coastal regions, including the open coasts and adjacent continental shelves. Preventing beach erosion, designing and building structures, designing and operating ships, providing marine forecasts, and coastal planning are but a few examples of projects for which extensive information about wave conditions is critical. Scientific studies, especially those in volving coastal processes and the development of better wave prediction models, also require wave condition information. How ever, wave conditions along and off the coasts of the United States have not been adequately determined. The main categories of available wave data are visual estimates of wave conditions made from ships at sea, scientific measurements of waves made for short time periods at specific locations, and a small number of long-term measurements made from piers or offshore platforms. With these considerations in mind, the National Ocean Survey of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration sponsored the Ocean Wave Climate Symposium at Herndon, Virginia, July 12-14, 1977. This volume contains papers presented at this symposium. A goal of the symposium was to establish the foundations for a com prehensive and far-sighted wave measurement and analysis program to fully describe the coastal wave climate of the United States. Emphasis was placed on ocean engineering and scientific uses of wave data, existing wave monitoring programs, and modern measure ment techniques which may provide currently needed data. Front Matter....Pages i-xi Front Matter....Pages 1-1 Providing Winds for Wave Models....Pages 3-37 Practical Determinations of Design Wave Conditions....Pages 39-60 State-of-the-Art Wave Prediction Methods and Data Requirements....Pages 61-91 Wave Data Requirements for Ship Design and Operation....Pages 93-107 Extreme Waves and Loadings on Floating Vessels....Pages 109-125 Front Matter....Pages 127-127 Ocean Surface Features Observed by HF Coastal Ground-Wave Radars: A Progress Review....Pages 129-152 A Compact Transportable HF Radar System for Directional Coastal Wave Field Measurements....Pages 153-201 Synthetic Aperture HF Radar Wave Measurement Experiments....Pages 203-220 High Frequency Skywave Measurements of Waves and Currents Associated with Tropical and Extra-Tropical Storms....Pages 221-234 An Assessment of GEOS-3 Wave Height Measurements....Pages 235-251 On the Use of Aircraft in the Observation of One- and Two-Dimensional Ocean Wave Spectra....Pages 253-267 Directional Wave Spectra from Wave Sensors....Pages 269-300 Data Buoy Wave Measurements....Pages 301-316 Measuring the Nearshore Wave Climate: California Experience....Pages 317-326 A Note on the Wave Climatology of UK Waters....Pages 327-331 Recommendations of Symposium Working Groups....Pages 333-353 Summaries of Presentations by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers....Pages 355-358 Other Government Wave Programs....Pages 359-360 Back Matter....Pages 361-368
