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Convention for describing wave direction

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Fig2.2.1-4: A schematic example of the Wave Spectrum at a location off the Dutch coast associated with a long wave swell propagating from the northern North Sea and wind-sea propagating across the southern North Sea.  At a given time there will be a swell of relatively uniform frequency and direction, and a wind-sea of rather broader frequency and direction. A 2D plot of wave energy against frequency and direction is in the top right diagram.  For simplicity this is reduced to a 1D plot of wave energy against frequency.  These peak values of swell and wind-sea can be plotted in chart form.

Significant wave height

Based on theory of wave-wave interaction, the estimate of highest equivalent weight (H_max) is calculated from the wave spectrum. 

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