On the Formation of Whitecaps by a Threshold Mechanism. Part I:. Basic Formalism

Abstract

Nova Univ., Dania, FL 33004, USA J (Journal-Article) This paper develops the descriptive framework for the investigation and examines several statistical predictions of a threshold model. The concept of a breaking variable is introduced and its statistics are related to the directional wave spectrum. The surface geometry of whitecap events is discussed and three classes of geometrical moments are defined. The statistics of these moments are related to the statistics of the breaking variable (and to the directional wave spectrum). Finally, several lower order probability densities for the breaking variable are computed for a JONSWAP spectrum Ocean Technology, Policy and Non Living Resources (Q2) 0622299 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Record 320 of 1156 - ASFA 1978-1987