Is the wind wave frequency spectrum outdated

Abstract

This paper presents a detailed examination of the practice of using the frequency spectrum to characterize wind waves. In particular, the issue of stationarity and Gaussian random process in connection with wind wave studies is addressed. We describe a test for nonstationarity based on the wavelet spectrum. When this test is applied to wind wave time series, the results significantly diverge from those expected for a Gaussian random process, thus casting critical doubts on the conventional concept of the wind wave frequency spectrum.