COMPUTER-BASED PROCEDURES FOR 



PREPARING GLOBAL WAVE FORECASTS 



AND WIND FIELD ANALYSES CAPABLE 



OF USING WAVE DATA OBTAINED 



BY A SPACECRAFT 



Willard J. Pierson, Jr., and Leo J. Tick 



New York University 



Bronx, New York 



and 



Ledolph Baer 



Lockheed California Company 



Burhank, California 



NEED 



Techniques are needed for improved descriptions of waves on the surface 

 of the sea. Improvements are needed both in accuracy and in detail of the de- 

 scriptions. With such descriptions, ships can be routed across the ocean more 

 economically, and search and rescue operations at sea can be carried out more 

 efficiently and safely. Warnings of conditions which could produce hazardous 

 events such as the recent damage to the Michelangelo could be given. An ade- 

 quate knowledge of the prevailing wave conditions on the ocean would permit the 

 design of better merchant ships and military vessels. A concept under investi- 

 gation by the Maritime Administration involving surface effect ships would 

 require very accurate wave forecasts. Coastal recreation areas need wave 

 forecasts. 



Moreover, the state of the sea is an integrated indication of the weather 

 over the oceans and should play an important role in numerical weather predic- 

 tion calculations. Many air-sea interaction processes are a function of the state 

 of the sea such as the amount of salt nuclei that enters the atmosphere. A bet- 

 ter understanding of the wave conditions over the oceans will be needed in order 

 to improve upon numerical weather prediction techniques. 



PRESENT DATA 



Present knowledge of conditions at sea is gained from ship reports, from 

 ships with shipborne wave recorders, and from special scientific installations 



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