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Wave Information Study
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Project Overview
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Updates
Contact UsUpdates:
- The 2020 Hindcast has been completed. Data gaps will be addressed in coming weeks.
- Alaska records from 1985-2020 are now available for most stations.
WIS Project Mission
The Wave Information Study project provides a national resource of long-term wave climatologies for all U.S. coastal waters using high-resolution wind fields, mean daily ice concentration fields (where appropriate), third generation phase average wave modeling technologies, that are extensively evaluated to point-source measurements and satellite-based altimetry providing high quality wave estimates. The multi-decade hindcasts and storm event archives are generated to meet tomorrow's coastal engineering needs today.
Problem
- Knowledge of the wave climatology is required for planning, design, construction, and maintenance of USACE projects in the coastal zone
- Information is scarce due to the lack of measurements at locations over timescales long enough to be statistically significant
- This lack of information is a critical problem for USACE operations, and project maintenance near the coast
Solution
- Generation of long-term coastal wave estimates using spectral wave models forced by high quality wind fields, to retain continuity
- Validate the model estimates to measurements
- Provide easy access to the estimates and tailored products specific to project needs
Impact
- Fully automated hindcast system with limited manual intervention
- Model simulations cost-effective compared measurements
- Timely web site updates with new wave estimates
