The West Coast experiment: An overview

Shadows of individual islands are observed in directional spectra sampled with a high resolution linear array at Torrey Pines Beach, California. A detailed investigation of the spectra indicates that the Channel Islands restrict the wave energy density to certain narrow directional sectors. A deep spectral trough, associated with San Clemente Island, is a predominant feature in the well resolved spectra (wave frequencies ∼0.06–0.15 Hz). Negligible values of energy density in the center of this directional ‘gap’ were consistently observed in the range 0.082–0.114 Hz. Measurable but low gap energy density values are seen in the high and low frequency regimes. Generation of high frequency waves (f≥0.13 Hz) by local winds generally smears the island windowing effects and even creates a spectral peak in a directional sector which is blocked from deep ocean exposure. Several estimation techniques are used in the directional spectrum analysis. These include the Maximum Likelihood Method (MLM) and two methods developed in this work. The two new techniques show significant improvement over the MLM in the definition of gaps in the spectrum. Although none of these methods is considered an ‘Optimal’ estimator for general use, each displays some superior merit in particular directional spectrum estimation problems.

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