Spatial deterministic wave forecasting for nonlinear sea-states

TL;DR

This paper introduces a simple algebraic correction to linear wave forecasting models for deep water gravity waves, improving accuracy without extra computational effort by leveraging temporal surface measurements and the Zakharov equation.

Contribution

It presents a novel algebraic nonlinear correction to linear wave forecasts based on the Zakharov equation, enhancing prediction accuracy for sea states.

Findings

Marked improvements over linear theory in forecasting accuracy

Effective for both synthetic and experimental sea data

No additional computational cost required

Abstract

We derive a simple algebraic form of the nonlinear wavenumber correction of surface gravity waves in deep water, based on temporal measurements of the water surface and the spatial Zakharov equation. This allows us to formulate an improvement over linear deterministic wave forecasting with no additional computational cost. Our new formulation is used to forecast both synthetically generated as well as experimentally measured seas, and shows marked improvements over the linear theory.