As requested by the US Army Corps of Engineers, CDIP reduces the
estimated wave frequency spectra to wave energy (or sea surface
variance) in 9 period bands.
The data files have 12 columns of numbers in the following format.
Column
Description
1
Date UTC (YYYYMMDDHHMM)
2
Significant Wave Height (cm)
3
Peak Period BAND
4
22+ sec. wave energy (cm**2)
5
18-22 sec. wave energy (cm**2)
6
16-18 sec. wave energy (cm**2)
7
14-16 sec. wave energy (cm**2)
8
12-14 sec. wave energy (cm**2)
9
10-12 sec. wave energy (cm**2)
10
8-10 sec. wave energy (cm**2)
11
6-8 sec. wave energy (cm**2)
12
2-6 sec. wave energy (cm**2)
For 9-band products, the peak band is defined as that with the most energy.
NOTE: Estimates of wave energy contain a certain amount of statistical
uncertainty. This uncertainty is function of wave frequency bandwidth
not period bandwidth. Therefore, the energy estimates in the 9 period
bands have varying confidence limits. In general, the statistical
uncertainty gets progressively smaller as you go from the longer to
the shorter wave period bands (which encompass increasingly larger
frequency bandwidths).
Sample Data
From the file de03601199801, wave energy at Grays Harbor, Washington
in January 1998. (Header not included in text files.)
