Estimating Wave Height Distributions from Wind Speed Distributions

Abstract

Using long-term wind and wave data from five of the National Data Buoy Center (NDBC) buoy stations in the Pacific Ocean, this study examined the validity and accuracy of estimating the wave height distribution from the corresponding wind speed distribution. Both the log-normal and the Gamma distributions were used as the conditional probability distribution of significant wave height with known wind speed. The results show that the wave height distribution can be satisfactorily estimated from the wind speed distribution from both conditional distributions. Fitting of the wave height distribution from the log-normal distribution is slightly better than that from the Gamma distribution.