An investigation of storm waves in the North Atlantic Ocean

Since February 1953 the Ocean Weather Ship Weather Explorer, using a shipborne wave recorder, has taken records of waves at the positions ‘India’ (61° 00' N, 15° 20' W) and ‘Juliet’ (52° 20' N, 20° 00'W). An investigation of the records shows that conditions of wave generation in the deep ocean are different from those on the continental shelf. In both deep and shallow water, the steepness of the highest waves decreases as the fetch increases until an equilibrium value is reached after about 100 miles. In deep water this equilibrium value increases with the wind speed, whereas in shallow water it tends to decrease with wind speed. Different empirical rules are required for wave prediction in the deep ocean and the shallow sea. The difference can probably be attributed to a greater effect of turbulence near the coast, where the depth is of the same order as the wavelength and there are active tidal streams.