Wave spectrum characteristics in the Asalouye

Wave spectrum provides a frequency domain description of the sea surface elevation and the stochastic process. Depending on the nature of the sea state they will be described by different shapes of spectra. Information about the spectral characteristics of waves such as significant wave height, peak wave period and wave spectral energy density are the basic needs of many scientific and engineering activities. In this study the raw wave's data measured by the ADCP in the Asalouye from April 2006 to April 2007 are analyzed. Due to the need to convert the analyzed data into the frequency spectrum through the Fast Fourier Transform, certain considerations are made in analyses. Time series data obtained are classified, and after quality control, these data are used to obtain spectral energy density. The smoothed measured spectrum is compared with some various wave spectra estimated based on theoretical formulations such as Jonswap-Bretschneider-Ochi-Wallop spectra. Results of this study shows that the JONSWAP spectrum is in a good agreement with the measured spectrum. Root mean square values between maximum spectral energy obtained from measured and estimated by JONSWAP is less than other spectral models. It is also found that the spectrum of the region of study is predominant single peak. Furthermore directional wave spectrum is determined by using frequency spectrum based on Longuet – Higgins theory.