“…While models created from satellite data have focused on addressing the degree of wave field development by including a wave age or pseudo wave age parameter to improve the bias estimates [ Fu and Glazman , 1991; Glazman et al , 1996], analyses derived from field experiment data and different theoretical modeling approaches have rather pointed out the likely impacts due to the presence or absence of swell [ Minster et al , 1992; Glazman et al , 1996; Branger et al , 1993] and to wave dynamics via tilt modulation, hydrodynamic modulation, and non‐Gaussian long wave surface statistics (e.g., surface skewness). These latter factors are all associated with higher order moments of the surface height power spectral density (PSD) compared to SWH which is related to the order 0 moment, such as the surface significant slope or wave steepness [ Parsons and Miller , 1990; Branger et al , 1993] obtained from the second moment of the surface height PSD, the long wave RMS slope [ Rodriguez et al , 1992; Chapron et al , 2001; Gommenginger et al , 2003; Millet et al , 2003a, 2003b; Melville et al , 2004; Kumar et al , 2003; Vandemark et al , 2005], the acceleration variance [ Elfouhaily et al , 1999, 2000, 2001] related to the fourth moment, the cross‐skewness quantity between long wave elevation and slope [ Vandemark et al , 2005], or such as finally orbital velocity [ Elfouhaily et al , 2001; Chapron et al , 2001; Millet et al , 2003a] related to the first moment of the surface height PSD.…”