Statistics of Greater Sea States

Accurate representations of seaway statistics are important for physical and computational predictions of ship motions. The spectra that are most typically used in these applications are the Pierson-Moskowitz or Bretschneider. While these spectra are useful for fully developed seas, the larger sea states (Sea State (SS) 7 and higher) are typically not fully developed. In these cases, other spectral models may be more appropriate. It is critical to ship motion prediction, for both physical and numerical models, to accurately capture the frequency range for the sea state of interest. Sea state statistics, including wave heights, periods, and spectral bandwidths from various buoys and a platform in the North Sea are collected and compared with statistics from lower sea states. The spectral data are then averaged to generate a typical spectrum under the measured conditions. These developed spectra are compared with the ideal spectra mentioned previously.