Wave height

[tangomoon]

I have had to sit on the mark checking everybody round at various events and wondered what wave height this one was

More on that site - puts things into perspective though it is easier to be in a smaller boat on these types of waves

 

[Deleted member 478]

I wonder if their mothers were sitting in the club house discussing knitting?

 

[tangomoon]

I reckon 3.5 metres - anybody else?

 

[Csail]

I reckon 3-4m.

 

[Nautibusiness]

Trough to very tip of the crest about 3m.

Probably being very stupid here(?), but I thought the actual height was measured from the mean height above sea level (the trough being officially beneath sea level).
If that is the case then about 1.5m, but still a lot for such tiny boats. Kids have no fear!

 

[Impaler]

But what is the Significant Wave Height?

 

[mandlmaunder]

Yeak...kids have very little fear and it's a good grounding for later. The KATS (Kids And The Sea) program here in the USVI's is fantastic and has produced a few Olympic entrants. Love it!

 

[AntarcticPilot]

I know this one, having worked with oceanographers on satellite instruments to measure it!

Significant Wave Height is the RMS peak to trough wave height averaged over an area - usually the footprint of an instrument such as a satellite radar altimeter (tens of kilometres radius). It is measured by the slope of the leading edge of the return of the radar pulse.

 

[1955patric]

[ QUOTE ]
I know this one, having worked with oceanographers on satellite instruments to measure it!

Significant Wave Height is the RMS peak to trough wave height averaged over an area - usually the footprint of an instrument such as a satellite radar altimeter (tens of kilometres radius). It is measured by the slope of the leading edge of the return of the radar pulse.

[/ QUOTE ]

So how high was that? /forums/images/graemlins/confused.gif

 

[saltwater_gypsy]

How does it work?????
There was a post on exactly this topic at 17.37( 14/12/08) and then you appear with the same topic two pages later at 17.10 (14/12/08). but yours has a time note of 23.35 for the previous day (13/12/08).
Am I in a TIME WARP?????

 

[Salty John]

Yes, according to the United States Naval Institution the height of a wave is trough to crest and the significant wave height is the average of the highest one third of all observed waves at a measuring station.
Up to 1965 the highest wave scientifically recorded was 67 feet, in the North Atlantic. I'm sure there are many more measurements taken these days, and bigger wave heights recorded.

 

[NickiCrutchfield]

I stick to the old measurement of wave height by amplitude: distance from rest to peak or trough. It is far less frightening to calculate thus. I always under estimate wave height in order to sleep better. Looking at that wave from the perspective of a surfer and bearing in mind it is quite close to the shore I would call it a 6-8' swell.

 

[ronsurf]

Only surfers and yanks measure waves in feet! Personally I prefer to measure waves in people: knee high, waist high, shoulder high, head high, overhead, way overhead, double overhead. How precise do you need to be?!!

 

[NickiCrutchfield]

Yours are perfectly reasonable measurement criteria da_ron, simple, descriptive and accurate. So how big do you reckon that swell is then?