It should be noted that the exact pattern of the waves shown in figures 11,1 

 and 11.2 will never occur again and never occurred previous to the time of the 

 photographs. However, patterns with the same statistical properties should 

 occur every time the gross meteorological conditions are the same. 



The leveled data 

 The spot height data after leveling according to the procedure described 

 previously was plotted on a grid 90 points high by 60 points wide. The values as 

 given in mm (x 10) were then contoured. The contouring was done by interpo- 

 lating to the contour value along the lines joining the points where the data were 

 plotted and connecting the interpolated points by straight line segments. Figure 

 11.3 illustrates the procedure employed. The contours can be roughly inter- 

 preted in feet. To convert to feet exactly the values shown should be divided by 



1.016. 



br The contouring procedure illustrates the effect of the spot l^eight readings. 



Any irregularities in the sea surface of shorter wave length than 60 feet are 

 essentially undetectable. The exact position of the height contours cannot be 

 determined, but if they could, they would wiggle all around about the straight 

 line segments shown, break off into little closed contour patterns, and show 

 a fine structure all the way down to the capillary level. 



Ijl The contours for Data Set 2 are shown in figure 11.4. The contours for 



Data Set 3 are shown in figure 11,5, 



The spot height readings are inaccurate by the very nature of the stereo 



process just as any system of obtaining data has inaccuracies in it. The con- 

 toured values and the values tabulated in the tables given before should be 



153 



