A Comparative Study of the Statistical Distributions of Wave Heights

Distribution of wave heights and surface elevations of wind-driven waves are studied.Recordsof surface elevations obtained from both field observations and laboratory measurements are analyzed.Wave heights can be approximated by normal,two-parameter Weibull,and/or Rayleigh distribution.However,while the first two models may have almost equal probabilities to fit measured data quite satis-factorily,the Rayleigh distribution does not appear to be a good model for the majority of the cases stu-died.Surface elevations from field data are well described by the Gaussian model,but as with increasingwind speeds,water surface in a wind-wave flume deviates from normality,and the Edgeworth’s form ofthe type A Gram-Charlier series is then applied.