Wind sea and swell meansurements using S-band Doppler radar

Abstract

Wind sea and swell indicating different wave field characteristics generally coexist in both coastal areas and open waters, which results in bimodal or multi-peaked features in directional wave spectrum. Separation and identification of mixed wave conditions into wind sea and swell present a more detailed description of the sea states, and they turn wave parameters such as significant weight height and mean wave period of the detached wave components more meaningful. With directional wave spectrum and wind velocity, wind sea and swell separation results can be obtained using a commonly used method named Wave Age (WA). Wuhan University has developed an S-band Doppler radar based on FMICW since 2011. Directional wave spectra derived from the Doppler radar deployed on the coast of the South China Sea have been utilized to investigate the results of wind sea and swell by WA.