The Statistical Properties of Orbital Wave Motions and their Application for the Measurement of Directional Wave Spectra

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Abstract
The knowledge of the directional wave spectrum is essential in the problem of the wave-generating mechanism by wind and also in the problem of the wave forecasting. It is also important in nearshore oceanography or in coastal engineering because the directional wave properties relate closely to pattern of nearshore circulations, drift sand and so on. The author has measured the orbital wave motion with electromagnetic current meters and has studied on the directional wave properties and the deformation of waves in shoaling water in connection with his work on the movement of sediment. In this paper, the statistical properties of the orbital wave motion are discussed and the methods of obtaining the directional wave spectrum from continuous records of two horizontal components of the orbital wave velocity are proposed. The records of two horizontal velocity components and the pressure fluctuation give the same amount of information as the records of surface elevation and two components of surface gradient. In other words, it is possible to obtain the first five Fourier coefficients of directional wave spectrum with respect to θ. Several simple methods for conducting routine observations are proposed.

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